About swissethics
The Swiss Ethics Committees on research involving humans have formed an association (swissethics). The members of the association are the recognised cantonal ethics committees of Switzerland.
The goal of the association is to coordinate the work of the cantonal Ethics Committees in order to assure the consistent application of the federal regulations regarding research involving humans, and to maintain the exchange of information.
swissethics is mandated by the Coordination office for research involving humans (kofam) and the Conference of cantonal ministers of public health (GDK) for:
the coordination and standardisation of working processes
education and training of the members of the ethics committees
Organisation
General assembly
Executive board
Dr. Susanne Driessen of EKOS (president)
Dr. iur. Jürg Müller of EKNZ (vice-president)
Prof. Dr. C. Samer of the EC Geneva (vice-president)
Prof. Dr. O. Huber of the EC Geneva
Prof. Dr. iur. Dominique Sprumont of the EC Vaud
Prof. Dr. David Nadal of the EC Zürich
Prof. Dr. Christoph Beglinger of EKNZ
Prof. Dr. Christian Seiler of the EC Bern
Dr. Giovan Maria Zanini of the EC Ticino
Committee
Dr. Susanne Driessen of EKOS
Dr. iur. Jürg Müller of EKNZ
MSc. Nienke Jones of EKNZ
Prof. Dr. C. Samer of the EC Geneva
MA Soc. Arthur Zinn-Poget of the EC Vaud
Pharm. Annette Magnin of the EC Zürich
Dr. Beatrice Giberti Gai of the EC Ticino
Dr. Dorothy Pfiffner of the EC Bern
Dr. Pietro Gervasoni, swissethics
Chair
Susanne Driessen has been President of the Ethics Committee EKOS since 2014 and President of swissethics since 2015. She has been active in the field of research ethics in Switzerland since 2010 and passed her specialist examination in pharmaceutical medicine in 2013. Previously, she worked as a physician in internal medicine (haematology/oncology in Freiburg i. Br., Germany) and in leukaemia research (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA) and transplantation immunology (Lübeck, Germany). Susanne Driessen earned her doctorate summa cum laude, she was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation and received in 1995 the prize of the German Society for Nephrology for her PhD. She is married and has four children.
General Secretariat
Pietro Gervasoni is Managing Director of swissethics since November 2015. Prior to that, he was General Manager and Director Clinical Operations at Quintiles (now IQVIA) for 8 years and held various roles and responsibilities in medical affairs and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry, including Sanofi and Bristol Myers Squibb. Mr. Gervasoni has also worked for the ICRC as a delegate and head office in the Middle East (Iraq, Kashmir) and Africa (Rwanda, Ivory Coast). He studied at the ETH Zurich and received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich with the 'outstanding dissertation award'.
Séverine van der Meulen has been working as a translator and secretary for swissethics since January 2024. After studying law at the University of Fribourg, she qualified as a translator. She worked as a freelance specialist translator German and French for 20 years. In addition to her part-time position at swissethics, Séverine van der Meulen works as an editor and legal assistant at the Federal Administrative Court and as a translator for the specialist journal "Umweltrecht in der Praxis". She is married and has two children.