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Ruth B. Merkatz, director of clinical development for the Population Council's Reproductive Health program, oversees the Council's contraceptive vaginal ring (CVR) Phase 3 clinical trial. The trial, testing the efficacy and safety of the ring, is multicentric, with centers throughout Australia, Europe, Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
Merkatz joins the Council following eight years at Pfizer Inc., where she was the director, team leader of women's health. Prior to that, she worked at the US Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC, first as the special assistant to the commissioner on women's health issues, then as the first director of the Office of Women's Health. In the latter capacity she took the lead in requiring all contraceptives labels to indicate whether or not they provide protection against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and in requiring inclusion of women in clinical trials and analysis of data for sex/gender effects.
Merkatz has received awards for her work in women's health awareness, mammography services, AIDS drug development, and excellence in nursing. She holds an B.S.N. from Cornell University, an M.S.N. from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. from the Adelphi University School of Nursing. Merkatz has published numerous scientific papers and serves on the editorial advisory boards of Journal of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Journal of Gender-Specific Medicine.
She holds an appointment as associate clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she has also served as co-chair of the hospital's bioethics committee, and at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and serves on several boards, including the New York Hall of Science. | 