Appointments

Dr Albert Farrugia has been appointed as a Visiting Professor in the School of Surgery and Pathology within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Western Australia. Professor Farrugia will assist with the establishment of a new Biotherapeutics and Tissue Generation Course in the University, and he will undertake teaching duties as well as research collaborations on the monitoring of viral diseases transmitted by tissues and the area of tissue cloning. It is expected that these activities will contribute to enhancing the TGA's currency in biological therapies, which are currently the subject of a proposed new regulatory framework under consideration by stakeholders.

Professor Farrugia has also been appointed to serve on the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Biological Standardization. The WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization is commissioned by the WHO to establish detailed recommendations and guidelines for the manufacturing, licensing, and control of blood products, cell regulators, vaccines and related in vitro diagnostic tests. Members of the Expert Committee are scientists from national control agencies, academia, research institutes, public health bodies and the pharmaceutical industry acting as individual experts and not as representatives of their respective organisations or employers. The decisions and recommendations of the Committee are based entirely on scientific principles and considerations of public health. Membership of the Committee generally does not exceed more than twenty experts from around the world. The Expert Committee directly reports to the Executive Board, which is the executive arm of the World Health Assembly.