Dr. Dr. Jan Willem van der Laan Leiden University, The Netherlands

Dr. Jan Willem van der Laan is senior assessor in Pharmacology and Toxicology for the Medicines Evaluation Board, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. From 2012-till 2021, he was chair of the EMA/CHMP Safety Working Party.... read more

Dr. Van der Laan was in the Pharmacology and Toxicology Assessment Section at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, Bilthoven) since 1990. In this function, he was responsible for the advice on non-clinical safety aspects for the Netherlands ‘College’, the Medicines Evaluation Board. He moved with this group in 2012 to the Medicines Evaluation Board located in Utrecht and stepped back as leader of the group. He is still senior assessor in this area.

His contributions to the International Conference on Harmonization started in 1993 on Carcinogenicity Testing S1. Later, he was an EU rapporteur for S8 Immunotoxicity and for ICH S6 (R1) Addendum for the preclinical testing of biotechnology-derived proteins. In 2015, he became Regulatory Chair of the Expert Working Group on Juvenile Toxicity Testing S11. He joined the S1 Expert Working Group on Carcinogenicity Testing, starting in 2012, where he became the Regulatory Chair as well. In 2022, the S1 EWG finished an addendum to the ICH S1B Guideline, providing additional approaches to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of human pharmaceuticals. In 2024, a paper has been published describing the dataset underlying this process.