Brussels, Belgium; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; and Boston, Massachusetts, USA, October 23, 2026
UCB has established the Emmanuel Janssen Endowed Chair for the Evaluation of Medicines at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, strengthening research into medication safety, effectiveness and value through real-world evidence. The permanent endowment supports the fields of pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics, which examine how medicines perform in routine clinical practice and how their benefits, risks and costs affect healthcare decisions. Sebastian Schneeweiss, MD, ScD, an internationally recognized expert in pharmacoepidemiology, has been named the inaugural holder of the chair. Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system and is recognized for its work in clinical research and evidence generation. The initiative reflects UCB’s commitment to supporting rigorous scientific research that can inform healthcare professionals, regulators, payers and patients about the appropriate use of medicines. By establishing a permanently endowed academic position, the company aims to support continued research and scientific leadership in medicine evaluation.
Permanent Endowment Advances Real-World Evidence Research
The new endowed chair will support research focused on real-world evidence (RWE), which is generated by analyzing information collected during routine healthcare delivery. Such information can include electronic health records, insurance claims, prescription records, patient registries and other healthcare data. Unlike evidence generated exclusively through controlled clinical trials, real-world evidence can help researchers understand how medicines perform among broader patient populations in everyday clinical settings. It can provide additional information about medication safety, treatment effectiveness, long-term outcomes and differences in how patients respond to therapies. UCB selected Brigham and Women’s Hospital because of its established leadership in pharmacoepidemiology and its experience translating real-world evidence into insights relevant to regulatory and reimbursement decisions. The permanent funding is intended to sustain research and academic expertise over the long term, rather than support a single short-term study. The work may contribute to improving how medicines are evaluated after approval and how evidence is used to guide clinical practice. However, real-world evidence must be carefully assessed for data quality, potential bias and methodological limitations before it can support reliable conclusions.
Sebastian Schneeweiss Named Inaugural Chair Holder
Sebastian Schneeweiss, MD, ScD, will serve as the first incumbent of the Emmanuel Janssen Endowed Chair for the Evaluation of Medicines. He is internationally recognized for research in pharmacoepidemiology, particularly the use of healthcare databases and advanced analytical methods to assess medication safety, effectiveness and value. His work focuses on generating reliable evidence that can help inform decisions made by clinicians, patients, healthcare payers and regulatory authorities. The appointment brings together UCB’s investment in evidence generation and the hospital’s established research capabilities. An endowed chair is a permanent academic funding mechanism designed to support a distinguished researcher and advance a defined area of scholarship. By supporting this position, UCB aims to encourage continued scientific discovery and strengthen the infrastructure needed to evaluate medicines in real-world settings. The announcement also highlights the importance of collaboration between biopharmaceutical companies and academic medical institutions in addressing complex questions about treatment outcomes. Independent, methodologically rigorous medicine evaluation is essential for understanding both the benefits and risks of therapies and for ensuring that treatment decisions are supported by dependable evidence.
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Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Support Better Decisions
The initiative also highlights two complementary disciplines that are increasingly important to modern healthcare. Pharmacoepidemiology studies the use and effects of medicines across populations, helping researchers identify safety signals, assess treatment outcomes and understand patterns of medication use. Pharmacoeconomics evaluates the economic consequences of healthcare interventions, including treatment costs, resource utilization and value relative to clinical outcomes. Together, these fields can help decision-makers assess whether medicines provide meaningful benefits in routine care and how healthcare resources can be allocated effectively. Research in these areas may also help identify differences in outcomes among patient groups that are not fully represented in clinical trials. The establishment of the chair is part of UCB’s broader effort to advance patient-focused science and strengthen evidence that informs medicine use. The announcement was formally celebrated on October 22, 2026, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. While the endowment does not announce a new medicine, clinical trial or regulatory approval, it represents a significant investment in the scientific infrastructure supporting pharmaceutical research. The long-term goal is to improve how medicines are assessed and used by strengthening the evidence available to patients, clinicians and healthcare systems.
Source: UCB press release
