Biography and publications | Patrick Couvreur - Technological innovation Liliane Bettencourt

Biography

Patrick Couvreur, a member of the Académie des Sciences, is Professor Emeritus at Paris-Saclay University. He holds the "Technological Innovation Liliane Bettencourt" chair at the Collège de France (2010), and is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). A specialist in drug delivery and nanomedicine, his work uses nanotechnologies for drug delivery and the treatment of serious diseases (cancer and diseases of the central nervous system). He is the founder of three start-ups, one of which has been floated on the stock exchange and has enabled the development of a nanomedicine to phase III clinical trials for the treatment of resistant hepatocarcinoma. He is also a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine, the Académie des Technologies and President 2020 of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie. Abroad, he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA), the National Academy of Engineering (USA), the Académie Royale de Médecine (Belgium), the Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia (Spain) and the Japan Academy of Pharmacy and Technology (Japan). He has won numerous awards in France (Médaille de l'Innovation du CNRS, Prix Galien, Grand Prix Achille Le Bel etc.) and abroad (Host Madsen Medal, European Inventor Award, Blaise Pascal Medal, CRS Founders Award etc.).

Career

Pharmacist, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1972)
PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1975)
Postdoctoral researcher, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH), Switzerland (1976-1977)
Supervisor, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1978-1984)
Professor of Pharmacotechnics and Biopharmacy, Université Paris-Sud, France (1984)
Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2009-2014)
Professor at the Collège de France, Technological Innovation Chair (2009-2010)

Responsibilities

Director of UMR CNRS 8612 (physical chemistry, pharmacotechnics and biopharmacy) (since 1997)
Founder and Director of the "Therapeutic Innovation" doctoral school (1999-2006)
Head of the "Médicament" theme (MEDICEN competitiveness cluster) (since 2005)

Research activities

Research at the interface between the physical chemistry of colloids, polymer chemistry, galenic pharmacy and experimental pharmacology, aimed at designing new drug delivery and vectorization systems ("Nanomedicines").

This work has been the subject of 367 international publications, 109 articles and book chapters, 50 patents, 192 invited lectures and the supervision of 59 doctoral theses. Editor of 7 books. H-index: 53/9,500 citations.

Promoting research

Creation of Bioalliance to develop doxorubicin-loaded polyalkylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles (Phase II/III clinical trial) (1997)

Creation of Medsqual, founded by P. Couvreur is the founder. Medsqual's aim is to bring to the clinic a number of nanomedicines derived from the "squalenization" process (2007)

Key national and international responsibilities

Member of the Conseil national des universités (CNU) (1987-1995)
Member of the Board of Governors of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) (1990-1994)
Chairman,^27th International Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, Paris, July 9-13, 2000 (1,500 participants)
Member of the Executive Committee of the ULLA International Consortium (universities of Uppsala, Leyden, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen and Paris) (1998-2002)
Member of the Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) (1996-2002)
Member of the Bureau of Section 16 of the Comité National du CNRS (2000-2002)
Professor Extraordinaire at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) (since 1985)
Chairman of the Committee for Academic Research and Relations (CARR) of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) (since 2004-2009)
"Field Editor of Pharmaceutical Research, European Editor of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research and member of the editorial boards of numerous other international journals
Member of the Scientific Council of the Centre region (since 2005)

Academies

Elected member of the Académie des technologies (France)
Elected member of the Académie de pharmacie (France)
Foreign correspondent member of the Académie royale de médecine (Belgium)

Scientific prizes and awards

Winner of the Assurances Générales de France prize (1981)
Alvarenga Award from the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine (1983)
Winner of the Académie royale de médecine de Belgique's five-year prize (1984-1989) for pharmaceutical and therapeutic sciences
Forcheimer Fund of Israel (1990)
1990 winner of the Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research from the Controlled Release Society, USA
international Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) "Pharmaceutical Scientist of the Year 1996" (Jerusalem, 1996)
Glaxo Wellcome International Achievement Award (1998)
Innovation and Technology Transfer Prize awarded by Paris Île-de-France-Capitale Économique for the creation of the start-up company Bioalliance (1999)
Barré Prize 2003, University of Montreal, Canada
Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress Award, Kyoto, Japan (2004)
Winner 2006 of the ^8th Concours national d'aide à la création d'entreprises de technologies innovantes (En émergence, Medsqual)
Host Madsen Medal (International Pharmaceutical Federation) (2007)
Grand prix de l'Innovation du Jury de L'Usine nouvelle
Marie-Maurice Janot Lecture (Prize awarded by APGI) (2008)
Winner of the 10th^Concoursnational d'aide à la création d'entreprises de technologies innovantes (Creation-Development, Medsqual) (2008)
Galien Prize (2009)