Veronika J. Wirtz, PhD

Veronika J. Wirtz, MSc, PhD is a pharmacist, educator and researcher with over ten years of experience in international public health focusing on health system strengthening and program evaluations of medicines access and utilization. Currently, Dr. Wirtz is Associate Professor of Global Health at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) where she teaches courses in health systems, pharmaceuticals in public health, and non-communicable diseases. She is a Visiting Professor of the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico and coordinator of a student exchange program between the institutions of her affiliation.

Her interest and expertise include medicines price analysis, generic medicines policies, access to medicines for non-communicable diseases, and the role of the private sector to promote equitable access and efficient use of medicines in low and middle income countries. Recently she became the Co-Chair of The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicine Policies. The Report of the Commission is expected to be published in 2016.

From 2004 to 2012 she was researcher and lecturer at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico and a founding member and Head of the Medicines in Public Health Research Group. Over the last years she has regularly taught short courses in Pharmacoepidemiology and Medicines Utilization Research at INSP in Mexico.

She has worked as a technical advisor for various international organizations, among them the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alliance for Health Systems and Policy Research, Health Action International and the Ford Foundation.

She published widely in international peer review journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, World Health Organization Bulletin, Health Policy and Planning, Health Policy, Value in Health, Social Science and Medicine, Tropical Medicine and International Health. She is Associate Editor of the journal Health Systems and Reform.

She received her training as a pharmacist from Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, Germany and her Master in Clinical Pharmacy and PhD from the University of London in the UK.