Opravy

Dear Sir or Madam After having reviewed your offer for a summer course in pharmacy, I decided to fill in an application form.

Highly interested, I propose to you to examine my candidature.

I am a Colombian graduated pharmacist and I’m currently completing a master’s degree of public health (1st year) at the Paris Diderot University and an internship in the Paris region’ pharmacoepidemiology center.

In the future, I would like to specialize myself in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaceutical policies research.

I’m particularly passionate in deepening my knowledge about the impact of medicines on public health and I would like to focus my career in developing multidisciplinary solutions to global problematics in this field .

Indeed, since summer 2010, I work as the chief editor and writer for the bulletin of the Drug Information Center of the Colombia’s National University (CIMUN), which is a member of the International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB).

CIMUN’s bulletin intends to deliver rigorous, critical and independent information to healthcare professionals and stakeholders to improve drug utilization and policymaking.

At this position, I’ve been able to investigate and analyze the factors causing the actual epidemics of irrational drug use and inequity in access to essential drugs that co-exist in middle-income countries like Colombia.

These problems are accentuated by the absence of a strong national pharmaceutical policy and the extensive influence of pharmaceutical industry in legislators and their neoliberal policies.

Moreover, my experience in France has brought to me a whole new vision of pharmaceutical policies as this country is experiencing a fast evolution in medicines regulation since the globally known mediator scandal -an anorectic drug marketed as an antidiabetic-, which has caused almost 1300 deaths because of heart valve disease.

These regulations include hard restrictions on off-label drug use and more stringent pharmacovigilance legislation.

In fact, my master’s research project would be probably based in the former subject and would be realized jointly with the Colombian and French research groups that I belong to.

For these reasons I would be an honor to me to be able to assist to the summer course.

I would be a unique opportunity for me to hear the view of international experts in the field and to be able to contribute to the discussion from my experience both in Colombia and in France.

Yours faithfully,