Zentiva Celebrates The Parc's Impressive Scientific Track Record in 2019

PRAGUE, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zentiva welcomed The Pharmaceutical Applied Research Center (The Parc) to their Prague headquarters to celebrate the first anniversary of The Parc Awards. The Parc is a unique research platform designed to prepare future generations of pharmaceutical scientists and engineers. Twenty-nine students are currently included in the program and an outstanding track record has been achieved in 2019: 16 publications, one patent application, 30 conference presentations, six plenary and keynote lectures, eight research grants and five students finalized their studies.

"2019 was a hugely successful year. I'd like to clearly emphasize the energy all our partners bring to the project. We now have 29 PhD students in the program and what is really important is the joint supervision students receive from both scientific/academic and industrial supervisors. This creates a unique combined industrial-academic environment which is the strength of The Parc for 2020 and the future," says Ondrej Dammer, The Parc's Operational Director.

Prof. František Štěpánek, The Parc's Scientific Director added, "I feel very proud, especially of the students. I have had the opportunity to see them develop over several years from being young undergraduates joining The Parc to becoming Master's graduates and then joining the PhD program. It is really satisfying to see the progress that they have made, both as individuals, as professionals and, of course, as scientists."

This year, The Parc Awards went to two young talents. Denisa Lizonova was awarded the Student Choice Award 2019 for her project on 'Modified Liposomes for Drug Delivery' and Vojtech Klimsa received the Expert Choice Award 2019 for his work on 'High Throughput Screening of Spray Dried Formulations'. Both awards are sponsored by Zentiva.

Pavel Sebek, Zentiva's Development Director and one of the founders of The Parc recalled its history and growth from an idea born 5 years ago: "We are so proud of what has been achieved to date. The combination of top-level science training combined with the development of industrial, business and leadership skills is not only unique but recognized across Europe. The future is in the hands of our young and creative cluster of students who have the ambition and skills to be at the top of pharmaceutical science and technology and are energized to make a difference in the pharma world. What makes me especially proud is that some of the students have decided to work for Zentiva after completing The Parc program and have become valuable members of our international development team."

About The PARC

Initiated by Zentiva, The Parc was created in association with three academic partners: the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague; the Faculty of Science of Charles University; and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. This highly successful initiative has brought rising talent together with leading pharmaceutical and academic experts, all working to accelerate innovation in drug research & development.

The Parc provides world class academic education combined with practical hands-on industrial and business experience under the leadership of scientists, engineers and managers both from academia and the pharmaceutical industry. It enables students to gain graduate-level training in pharmaceutical sciences bridging chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, biopharmacy and clinical research. Results of the students' research are frequently directly implemented in real world products launched to market to help patients. Collaborating with academic partners across Europe, The Parc also offers secondments for students and research experience exchanges supervised by top academic scientists.

More information about The Parc can be found on www.theparc.eu.

About Zentiva

Zentiva is a producer of high-quality affordable medicines serving patients in Europe and beyond. With a dedicated team of more than 3,000 people and a network of production sites - including flagship sites in Prague and Bucharest - Zentiva strives to be the champion of branded and generic medicines in Europe to better support people's daily healthcare needs.

At Zentiva it is our aspiration that healthcare should be a right and not a privilege. More than ever, people need better access to high quality affordable medicines and healthcare. We work in partnership with physicians, pharmacists, wholesalers, regulators and governments to provide the everyday solutions that we all depend on.

Learn more about Zentiva on www.zentiva.com.  

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Media Contact:

Ines Windisch
Head of Corporate Affairs & Human Resources
ZENTIVA GROUP, a.s.
U Kabelovny 130 – 102 37 Prague 10 – Czech Republic
Cell: (+420) 601-341-444
E-mail: ines.windisch@zentiva.com 
www.zentiva.com