ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Governing Body
The UPCOS Executive Council, as the UPCOS’s governing body headed by the Chairman of the UPCOS General Council, has the direct authority on all the UPCOS units. It consists of 75 members (including the Chairman) who are the most senior UPCOS executives. The Constitutional UPCOS rules and regulations are prepared and decided on by the UPCOS Executive Council. Admissions to UPCOS, as member states as well as their individual member delegates, get the final approval from the UPCOS Executive Council. Having the supreme authority in the UPCOS administration, the UPCOS Executive Council reviews, discusses, debates and decides on major and determining UPCOS issues, subjects and matters, and it makes the final and conclusive decisions on practical, executive, administrative and constitutional matters and issues. Actions and decisions regarding such matters and issues related to departmental and commissional units are also made by the Executive Council. All of the global legislative and constitutional acts, matters and issues passed from the UPCOS General Council (UPCOS World Council) get the final approval from the Executive Council.
The UPCOS Executive Council, as the UPCOS’s governing body, will be working in cooperation and accordance with international administrative and authoritative governing bodies, organizations and institutions including EU/EC, UN, WHO, etc. The UPCOS Executive Council will be consisting of members selected from the leading major pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical/medical institutions, organizations and associations, etc listed in the UPCOS Registry, as institutional UPCOS members, as well as related governmental bodies, departments and authorities (e.g. Food and Drugs Administration, etc..) of the member countries that share the UPCOS System.
UPCOS World Council (General Council)
The UPCOS World Council (General Council) consists of the UPCOS delegated members who are the executives of the members countries’ ”National UPCOS Councils” (UPCOS National Councils) and the delegated executives of the member states’ related bodies, departments or authorities (e.g. Food and Drugs Administration, etc..)
The “UPCOS Executive Council” meets quarterly to prepare, discuss, review and vote on new and existing UPCOS rules and regulations and issues, matters and problems related to the pharma industry tradewise as well as in relation with the public and the practice and science of medicine at national and international levels.
Chaired by the Chairman of the Council, the UPCOS General Council prepares and votes on legislative, constitutional, structural and practical issues in the UPCOS System. Functioning as the constitutional body of UPCOS, the UPCOS General Council also debates, votes and decides on the UPCOS’s administrative affairs and matters. The Council discusses and debates and votes on issues and matters in international pharma practice and industry in order to generate related norms and standards.
Constitutional decisions and rulings made by the General Council are subject to the UPCOS Executive Council’s approval which is usually forthrightly given. The General Council also votes on constitutional and structural issues and matters upon suggestions or requests from the Executive Council, and in such cases the General Council’s decisions and rulings are final. Any internal debates at the General Council’s own voting, rulings and decisions are dealt with and decided on by the UPCOS Executive Council.
UPCOS General Assembly
While an organization’s general assembly, as its principal deliberative body, conventionally suggests or directly means the organization’s general council, the name of the UPCOS General Assembly has a literal meaning; each routine quarterly UPCOS General Council gathering is an UPCOS General Assembly.
At the UPCOS General Assembly, unlike other organizations’ assemblies (e.g. UN, etc.), member nations do not have equal representations. Member states have variable voting power through UPCOS’s unique effective voting system in which a large member state’s (e.g. USA) voting power may be much bigger than that of a small one (e.g. Luxembourg) because of the fact that the large state, with a large National Council composed of a big number (hundreds) of pharma companies as members generates a sizable number of effective votes at the assembly, whereas the other one may have only a three-member National Council and therefore represents itself, at the assembly, with three effective votes.
UPCOS National Councils
All the UPCOS National (State) Councils of the member countries function under the authority of the UPCOS General Council (UPCOS World Council). They are composed of the executives of the states’ pharmaceutical and pharma-related industries of the member states’.
The members of the UPCOS National Councils are the delegates of the UPCOS General Council. Led by their council chairman, each UPCOS National Council’s members come from the executives of the country’s pharmaceutical manufacturers, companies, organizations, associations and institutions, etc. The numbers of the National Councils’ members vary being directly proportional to the countries’ general populations as well as the volume of pharmaceutical and pharma-related industries.
UPCOS Advisory Board
Composed of accomplished experts of the medical and pharma industries, the UPCOS advisory board, meeting quarterly, offers the UPCOS Executive and General Councils non-binding and non-biased advice, information and assistance with guidance in strategic direction, quality improvement and program effectiveness in the global UPCOS System.
