National based up to the 70s, European during the 80s, the pharmaceutical industry is becoming more and more global at the horizon of the next century

Pull by the market opening, the harmonisation of health policies and the recognition that diseases cross freely the state borders, this move is also pushed by the mergers of pharmaceutical companies. It let to a fundamental transformation of pharmacy and its partnerships.
The European research based industry is confronted with both the consolidation of the European Union, with the need for free movement of goods and people, and the increasing competition with Japan and the USA. In the European Union, the harmonisation of the legal and regulatory framework concerning medicinal products is close to completion.
The creation of the European Medicine Evaluation Agency and both the availability of a central registration procedure and a mutual recognition procedure covering the member states will facilitate the free circulation of medicines.

The internationalisation of the Pharmaceutical Industry, the harmonisation of the regulatory requirements concerning Medecinal Products between developed countries, including Europe, Japan and the USA, have led progressively to the world spreading of preclinical and clinical development of drugs. This results in complicated, integrated development and registration strategies. These must take into account the regulatory prerequisites of different parts of the world, the increasingly difficult requirements of the development process, the stringent necessity of managing the strategy and cost of development, the complexity of establishing and evaluating registration dossiers, and the necessity of ensuring the proper use and proper post-marketing follow-up of medicinal products for human use to ensure public and individual protection.
These factors explain the need of improving the competitiveness of the European Pharmaceutical Industry in one hand, a better understanding of the specificity of European people in terms of health care needs and systems by the non-European pharmaceutical firms and CROs.

Several Diplomas of Pharmaceutical Medicine are offered in a number of European countries (Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom). However, none of these educational and training courses consider the differences in health care systems in the European Union, all aspects of the development, regulatory requirements, registration and post-marketing of medicines in both their dimensions of European subsidiarity and internationalisation. In addition, few aim to train both young post-graduates and experienced executives.

Furthermore, there is a need to establish, recognise and disseminate common European standars in the conceptual as well as operational aspects of Pharmaceutical Medicine for the best of patients.

The international approach of activities covering the Pharmaceutical Medicine, and the experience acquired in France with the diploma DIU CLIM, support and justify this European project which seeks for a large co-operation of Universities and other Institutions, including Regulatory Bodies.