The Programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine has been established as an initiative of a group of experts from the academia, regulatory bodies, clinical research sites and pharmaceutical companies who identified a need for continued education and qualification of pharmaceutical medicine professionals in Portugal.

The Programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine is based on modules consisting of a face-to-face course plus distance-learning activities. The modular and mixed face-to-face vs. distance-learning structure is designed to fit in with the working lives of full-time professionals allowing to balance work commitments with learning.

The “Training Programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine” has a double mission:

- To provide lifelong training in pharmaceutical medicine of human resources employed by the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors, research centres, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders involved in the research, development, approval and marketing of drugs, medical devices and other health products.
- To train new human resources that can contribute to boosting biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D in Portugal and abroad.

The “Training Programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine” gives a broad perspective of product life cycle. Participants will gain competences to work through this cycle particularly on the development and regulatory processes.

The Programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine is structured in a flexible format in order to address the training needs of different target audiences and to facilitate the participation of active professionals.

The Programme is presented in modules. The participants receive a comprehensive pre-reading package before each module in order to start the module with basal knowledge about the issues to be addressed. Each module occurs in a face-to-face session followed by homework and distance-learning activities. The face-to-face sessions consist of a series of learning events, namely lectures, seminars, presentations and discussion panels. Distance-learning activities include bibliographic research about specific issues, assignments to be worked on individually and/or in small groups of participants.

The Programme highlights the involvement of external experts in the teaching staff as a point of additional value of the modules. The teaching staff is composed by a combination of experts in each of the topics to be addressed. About 200 Lecturers have been involved in the Programme, coming from the academia, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical industry, clinical research organisations and competent authorities.

In order to assure total independence from commercial interests, the Programme does not accept any type of financial support from private entities, such as pharmaceutical companies or contract research organisations.

Participants’ fees financially support the course. This income is used to support course logistics, administrative structure and research. The teaching staff may receive traveling cost reimbursement.