University of New England

UNE College of Pharmacy to be established in innovative private/public partnership with University of Maine and other healthcare partners

PORTLAND – To address the critical shortage of pharmacists in Maine and to expand its biomedical research capacity, the University of New England in an innovative private/public partnership with the University of Maine has crystallized and accelerated its plans to build a College of Pharmacy.

UNE President Danielle Ripich introduces the founding dean of the new College of Pharmacy, John Cormier

Clinical training and research partnerships have also been established with Maine Medical Center in Portland, Mercy Health Care Systems in Portland, Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford and Maine General Health and Medical Center in Augusta and Waterville.

The new College’s significant emphasis on research is expected to provide a major economic stimulus to southern Maine while enhancing people’s health throughout the state, the region and the nation.

Partnerships

Gov. John Baldacci

UMaine President  Robert Kennedy

Maine Medical Center  CEO Vincent Conti

UNE and UMaine are planning to work collaboratively on academic programming. All of the cooperating institutions will participate in shared faculty appointments and collaborate on clinical and research opportunities in pharmacology. The participating hospitals will provide opportunities for student internships and residencies.

The City of Portland is working aggressively to assist with the development of infrastructure to support the College. The state of Maine, through direct appropriations and bonds, has strongly supported increased research capacity throughout the state, and Gov. John Baldacci has made research one of the cornerstones of Maine’s economic development initiatives.

UNE officials plan to locate the new College of Pharmacy on the University’s Westbrook College Campus.

The College’s founding dean will be John Cormier, Pharm.D., former dean of the College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina. Cormier served as a principal consultant to UNE during the University’s most recent exploration phase of this initiative.

The announcement was made Nov. 16, 2006 at a press conference held on UNE’s Westbrook College Campus that included the presidents from four principal institutions (UNE President Danielle N. Ripich, Ph.D., UMaine President Robert Kennedy, Ph.D., MMC President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent S. Conti and Ed McGeachey, president and CEO of Southern Maine Medical Center), Governor John Baldacci, Portland Mayor James Cohen and representatives from the other supporting hospitals.

The Program
The College will offer students a choice of doctoral degree options that will prepare them to be pharmacists and/or pharmaceutical scientists. Approximately 100 pre-pharmacy students will enter the program in fall, 2007. The pre-pharmacy phase is the first two years of the six-year degree program. The four-year professional program will enter its first class as early as fall, 2008 and no later than fall, 2009, depending on facilities completion and external funding support. 

“The College’s research orientation – its strong discovery piece – will make us very different from most other pharmacy schools in the country and any other pharmacy school in northern New England,” noted UNE President Danielle Ripich. “Our goal is to be one of the top ranked pharmacy schools in the nation.”

She continued, “The University of New England is operating from three distinctive strengths. First, research strength in pharmacology in our College of Osteopathic Medicine, Maine’s only medical school and a regional leader in biomedical research. Second, excellent clinical practice is a key strength of both our medical school and our College of Health Professions. And third, our focus on research initiatives that will investigate the relationship between the ocean and human health, which includes the discovery and development of valuable medicines from the sea. This new college will build on these core strengths of the University of New England and take us even further in our goal to become a pre-eminent university.”

“Add to these diverse assets first-rate undergraduate and graduate science faculty at both universities, some of the world’s top medical researchers at UNE, UMaine and Maine Medical Center, superior clinical sites at some of the state’s finest hospitals, and you have the formula for an innovative, outstanding school of pharmacy, one that will well serve the people of Maine in a variety of important ways,” President Ripich said. (President Ripich's complete remarks - pdf)

University of Maine
“This new initiative represents another way for the University of Maine to collaborate with statewide partner institutions to address a critical need for our state,” said Kennedy, the UMaine president. “This model, as we have seen with the success of our new Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, works exceptionally well in a state like Maine, where collaborative partners are willing to share expertise and resources to provide the high-quality academic programs, rooted in research, that will make a difference as Maine continues to develop its teaching, research and business development capacity related to bioscience. The people of Maine expect UMaine to take a leadership role in maximizing that capacity, and we are delighted to join UNE, Maine Medical Center and our other partners in taking this next step.”

The University of New England, Maine’s only independent university and the home of Maine’s only medical school, is recognized as a regional leader in the education of health professionals. The University of Maine is the state’s flagship research university, offering a range doctoral degrees in the biological sciences. Maine Medical Center, the largest hospital in Maine, is also a leader in biomedical research.

(Press release issued Nov. 16, 2006)