María Amparo Pascual López

María Amparo Pascual López (born November 29, 1944) is a Cuban pharmacologist, medical doctor and clinical trial expert.

She was the driving force behind the establishment of Cuba's Clinical Trials Coordinating Center (CENCEC),^[1] a center for the evaluation of products before their medical practice. She was also named Cuba's first biostatistician and was named one of the 10 most outstanding scientists of Latin America.^[2]

Education

In 1967, María Amparo Pascual López graduated from University of Havana, as a Doctor of Medicine. Then, in 1974, she went to the School of Public Health (Escuela de Salud Pública) in La Havana, Cuba^[3] She first wanted to focus on medicine, but ultimately decided on becoming a biostatistician.

Career

Following the rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry in Cuba, there needed to be a method for evaluating products before they are introduced to the public. As a result, María Amparo Pascual López, along with four other specialists, established the CENCEC, with the objective of ensuring proper clinical assessment of medical-pharmaceutical and biotechnology products will ethical, scientific and methodological rigor, while complying with international standards to be ready to be approved for marketing both in Cuba and internationally^[2] María Amparo Pascual López shifted her focus from being a doctor to investigation in oncology, and then in the rest of the specialties.^[4] She has also been a professor at the University of Habana, teaching Biostatistics and Bioethics.

From 1991 to 2014, María Amparo Pascual López was a founding director of the CENCEC. In 2013, she was named one of the 10 female leaders of science in Latin America.^[4]