Werner Coussement, DVM, PhD


Dr. Coussement is the Head of the Global PreClinical Development organization. He oversees a team of employees in four locations: Beerse, Belgium; East Coast and West Coast of the United States; and Shanghai, China – across four main functional areas: Toxicology/Pathology; Laboratory Animal Medicine; Bioanalysis and Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics. In addition, GPCD has a Project Axis, with Preclinical Project Leaders who drive projects forward, tapping into expertise from the line functions. The line functions and project axis are supported by several teams, including Preclinical Submission Support; Functional Planning; Compliance; Technology Support & System Compliance (TSSC) and various Centers of Excellence and Expertise.

Prior to this role, Werner served as Global Head of Toxicology/Pathology and Laboratory Animal Medicine for GPCD and as GPCD Site Head for Europe.

Werner Coussement became Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1978 at the University of Ghent. Subsequently, he was a Research Associate in the Department of Pathology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ghent.  In 1983, he obtained a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Sciences at the same university. In 1985, he joined Janssen Pharmaceutica as a Pathologist in the Department of Toxicology and was responsible for the pathology of topical, repeated dose toxicity, reproduction and carcinogenicity studies. In 1991, Werner became Director of Toxicology. In this role, he was responsible for the toxicological interpretation of chronic toxicity, reproduction and carcinogenicity studies. Between June 1998 and December 2000, he was Senior Director and Vice-President of Non-clinical Safety Evaluation.