The Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES) has added Dr. Judith Beach, senior vice president and senior associate general counsel for regulatory affairs at Quintiles, to its board of directors. Beach brings her wide-ranging experience in legal and regulatory counsel on international and domestic regulatory issues in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries, as well as her chief privacy officer responsibilities, to ACRES mission of building a global system for accountable clinical research.

ACRES, a nonprofit organization, harnesses the experience of diverse stakeholders across the clinical research and drug development endeavor to develop this much needed global system. Through integrated information technologies and interoperable standards, policies and practices across the global drug development enterprise, this open system will enhance safety, quality and efficiency worldwide and industry-wide to benefit all stakeholders.

Several ACRES foundation initiatives are underway in the areas of site development and support, technology and informatics, quality management, ethics and regulatory innovation, and safety and pharmacovigilance. Beach will help further this work.

Beach’s responsibilities with Quintiles include providing legal and regulatory counsel on regulatory matters, good clinical practices in the conduct of clinical trials and the protection of human participants in research with respect to investigators, institutional review boards, sponsors and clinical research monitors. She chairs Quintiles Council on Research Ethics, and also chairs Quintiles’ global internal privacy board.

Dr. Greg Koski, ACRES president and CEO, said, “It is difficult to imagine a more perfect match for ACRES, or a more perfect time than now. It is particularly valuable to have the perspective of a privacy advocate on the board.”

Beach added, “As clinical research and medical practice become increasingly seamless, both our practices and our policies must ensure that the rights, well-being and privacy of patients are respected. ACRES has donned the mantle of global leadership, and I am thrilled to be part of this extraordinary collaborative initiative.”

Fellow ACRES Director, Dr. Eve E. Slater, formerly U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, and former senior vice president of Clinical & Regulatory Development at Merck and senior vice president of Worldwide Policy at Pfizer, now professor of medicine at Columbia University, noted that “Beach brings to the board remarkable expertise and experience in both clinical research and policy development, as well as a critically important perspective from a leading CRO and patients. Her insights will be invaluable.”