Barton Cobert, MD, FACP, FACG, FFPM - BLCMD Associates LLC
Barton Lewis Cobert MD, FACP, FACG, FFPM has had a long career in the clinical practice of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine as well as, in the pharmaceutical industry specializing in drug safety and risk management. For over a decade he was Global Head of Drug Safety (side effects) for the Schering-Plough Research Institute and held similar positions for Novartis Consumer Health Inc. He has also worked in the information technology industry at Medidata Solutions. Dr. Cobert was born in New York City and received his BA from New York University and his MD from New York University School of Medicine. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Gastroenterology and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (UK). He has written and lectured extensively both nationally and internationally on drug safety, side effects and the safe use of medications. He has written three books on drug safety including the Manual of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance which is used as a textbook in courses on drug safety. Dr. Cobert is president of BLCMD Associated LLC, a drug safety and pharmacovigilance consulting company in Westfield, NJ.
Pierre Biron, MD - University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Dr. Biron studied medicine at the Université de Montréal where he obtained his M.D. degree. He took an M.Sc. degree in Investigative Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, completed by postgraduate studies at the Rockefeller University in New York City, and at University Hospitals in Paris.
Dr. Biron joined the Department of Pharmacology at the Université de Montréal where, for three decades he taught undergraduate and graduate medical students. His first 20 years were spent in basic, clinical and observational research and the last 10 years were devoted to drug safety by singlehandedly setting up a university-based regional pharmacovigilance center and writing his first pharmacovigilance dictionary.
Now Honorary Professor of Pharmacology, he focuses on the clinical trials and pharmacovigilance scene and is concerned by the effects on patients’ safety of the relationships between industry, regulators, academics and prescribers.
