Welcome to the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines
Every day, medicinal products make a decisive contribution to prevent diseases – especially serious ones – or alleviating ailments, extending the life expectancy of patients and improving their quality of life. In addition to our high expectations of the efficacy and safety of medicines, the pharmaceutical quality of the products is also particularly important with regard to patient care.
The Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM) is committed to promoting research activities that are designated to optimally assure the quality of medicinal products in Germany and Europe or, if necessary, further improving them, especially if they are manufactured outside the country. Main concern is the development of advanced processes, the implementation of innovative technologies and their standardization as well as a critical verification of quality assurance concepts.
Download the FFQM flyer here (PDF-File, ~200kB)
Recent news
June 4, 2026 · News
Call for Applications: 2026 RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies from the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines
It’s that time again. The “RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies,” initiated and sponsored by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM), has been announced for the second time by the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU).
The award is presented by the RMU and the FFQM to outstanding early-career researchers. It is endowed with 10,000 euros and is provided directly by the foundation.
Application materials must be submitted electronically via email to: gs@rhein-main-universitaeten.de
Application deadline: August 15, 2026
Information on the application process is provided in the attached call for applications: RMU Pharma Award_Ausschreibung 2026
Further information on the application process: https://www.rhein-main-universitaeten.de/rmu-awards
May 29, 2026 · Prices and Awards
Pearls of Bioeqivalence and Biopharmaceutics Award 2026
From innovation to impact: Prof. Werner Weitschies receives the EUFEPS/FFQM Pearls of Bioequivalence & Biopharmaceutics Award for the development of the EsoCap technology
We congratulate Professor Werner Weitschies of the Institute of Pharmacy, Center of Drug Absorption and Transport – Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Greifswald, who received this year the Pearls of Bioequivalence and Biopharmaceutics Award. The award is presented jointly by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM) and the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS). The award was given for Prof. Weitschies’ project: “From innovation to impact: the first drug delivery system for local treatment of the esophagus.”
The award recognised a groundbreaking innovation for the local treatment of oesophageal diseases. The EsoCap system was designed and patented by Prof. Weitschies’ research group at the University of Greifswald. It represents the world’s first clinically validated platform technology for targeted local drug therapy of the oesophagus. This is the first approach to to enable controlled local drug therapy of the oesophagus.
The 2026 award was presented on May 29 in Naples during the “JOINT EUFEPS – SITELF MEETING, NAPLES 2026: ‘Advances in pharmaceutical sciences’” by the Foundation’s Chairman, Professor Henning Blume, and the EUFEPS President, Professor Giuseppe De Rosa.
April 29, 2026 · Prices and Awards
Hans-Günter-Schäfer Science Award 2026 goes to Zrinka Duvnjak
The winner of the Hans-Günter-Schäfer-Science Award 2026 is the PhD student Zrinka Duvnjak. She is in her final year of studies as Pharmacometrics PhD student at Freie Universität Berlin, Departement of Clinical Pharmacy and Biochemistry. Ms. Duvnjak is awarded for the publication „Physiolocically Motivated Sequential Population Modeling of Albumin Trends and Vedolizumab Pharmacokinetics for Pregnancy Dosing Regimen Optimization” (Clin. Pharmacol. & Therapeutics, doi:10.1002/cpt.70145). The study enhances quantitative understanding of monoclonal antibody pharmacokinetics in pregnancy using Vedolizumab as an example with potential application to other biologicals, and provides optimized dosing strategies in nomogram-like plot to mitigate risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
The award, which is endowed with 1,000 euros, is sponsored by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM). The Foundation congratulates Ms. Duvnjak and wishes her continued success in her scientific work. The award was presented on 25 April at the PKPD expert meeting in Weimar, which is organized by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für angewandte Humanpharmakologie (AGAH).
March 10, 2026 · News
Quality of Medicines Award 2026 announced
The Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM) and the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG) jointly award the the Quality of Medicines prize 2026 for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of optimizing and ensuring the quality of drugs. We would like to support fundamental investigations into the quality of drugs on the market as well as innovative concepts to improve them.
The DPhG President and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the FFQM decide on the award based on a recommendation from the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board. The award is associated with prize money of €2,000 and will be presented at the DPhG annual conference in 2026 in Regensburg.
Applications can be submitted electronically to the DPhG office (info@dphg.de) or to the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (info@frankfurt-foundation.org) until July 15, 2026.
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Jaehde, Präsident der DPhG
Prof. Dr. Henning Blume, Vorstandsvorsitzender der FFQM
February 6, 2026 · Funding Projekts
Quality requirements for nanomedicines: Filling the gaps – the project was successfully completed
We congratulate Dr. Ines Nikolic on the successful completion of the project “Quality requirements for nanomedicines: Filling the gaps,” which was funded by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines. She carried out the work as a postdoctoral researcher in the working group of Prof. Gerrit Borchard at the University of Geneva.
It began with a comprehensive literature review, which led to the publication of a review article in the journal Archives of Pharmacy. This work critically assesses the state of research, identifies key knowledge gaps, and defines the experimental strategy and overarching research questions of the project.
Using a practice-oriented selection of suitable characterization methods, the combination of dynamic light scattering (DLS) and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) was identified as a robust core method for determining the size of nanoparticles.
Based on this, an international laboratory comparison study involving five institutions and six measuring devices was conducted, resulting in concrete best practice recommendations for nanoparticle size determination and confirming its central importance for quality and approval assessments in nanomedicine. The results were published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
For the biorelevant characterization of nanomedicines, Nikolic focused on nanoparticle-biomolecule interactions (proteins, human serum) and on the development of adapted toxicity tests for nanomedicines. Two standard operating procedures (lactate dehydrogenase release test and propidium iodide-based test) were established. This work was published in Drug Delivery and Translational Research.
All project goals were successfully achieved, resulting in a comprehensive physicochemical and biological dataset for selected nanoparticle systems.
November 30, 2025 · Prices and Awards
Congratulations to Dr. Cristian Prieto-Garcia
This year, the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) presented awards for the first time to outstanding scientists from the participating universities (Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Technical University of Darmstadt).
Dr. Cristian Prieto-Garcia from the Institute of Biochemistry II at Goethe University Frankfurt was honored with the RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovative Medical Therapies, initiated by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM). The award ceremony took place during a ceremony in the venerable “Alte Mensa” (old cafeteria) of Mainz University. At this event, Prof. Christian Wiese, holder of the Martin Buber Chair at Goethe University, Frankfurt, was also awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences. The ceremony was accompanied by music performed by an ensemble from the Mainz University Choir.
Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, acting RMU spokesperson and president of Goethe University, emphasized that these awards represent another important step in the integration of the university network. He hopes that this will become a tradition and that awards for other RMU profile areas will be added in the future.
In his laudatory speech for the award winner Dr. Prieto-Garcia, Prof. Dr. Felix Hausch emphasized: „This award honors not only an excellent scientist, but also a visionary thinker who has the maturity, creativity, and drive to establish an independent research program. His discoveries have the potential to revolutionize therapeutic approaches in cancer treatment and beyond.“ Prieto-Garcia specializes in proteostasis and RNA processing in diseases such as cancer.
At the award ceremony, Prof. Dr. Henning Blume emphasized on behalf of the founders that their aim was to give promising young scientists the recognition and visibility they deserve. Dr. Prieto-Garcia is a prime example of this and, given his pioneering research, a worthy first recipient of the award.
