You should know your rights says employment lawyer Philip Landau at Landau Zeffertt Weir Solicitors.
With the UK Pharmaceutical industry recently seeing some major redundancy announcements, including high profile cases at the Pfizer site in Sandwich and the AstraZeneca research facilities in Loughborough and more recently Alderley Park, you may be thinking it is not worth challenging your employers once you have been notified of your redundancy. There is a strict test as to what amounts to redundancy, and there a proper process to be followed. A failure by your employer on either of these fronts will give you valuable employment rights. Continue reading “Pharmaceutical Redundancy: Employers don’t always get it right.” »
At a previous TOPRA symposium I met a recent graduate who outlined the Difficulties in securing your first Regulatory Affairs role.
This is a follow-up from the author who still wishes to remain anonymous.
“My last account in 2010 was on how much effort I had put into moving to a regulatory affairs (RA) role. I had, then, completed 5 modules from my MSc in Medical Technology Regulatory Affairs course. I had continued to search and apply for entry level jobs in RA. I kept on receiving calls from recruitment agencies but the hurdle of not having practical experience could not be overcome. I had applied for several positions within the company I was working for, but was still not getting any response. Continue reading “Difficulties in securing your first Regulatory Affairs role (continued)” »
Wellards Conference Looking ahead to 2011/12: a new government, a new healthcare ‘ice age’? 3 November 2010, Royal College of Physicians, London
I was very excited about attending the Wellards conference this year in light of the radical proposals outlined in Andrew Lansley’s White Paper Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS. I was hoping for some answers regarding how healthcare will be delivered in the future; specifically what will the new commissioning system look like and what effects this will force on the pharmaceutical industry.
The Conference was chaired by Alan Jones, ajc healthcare and Kieran Walshe, professor of health policy and management at Manchester Business School
The Speakers:
- Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive, NHS Confederation
- Dr Peter Brambleby, joint director of public health for NHS Croydon and Croydon Council
- Dr Richard Barker, director general, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
- Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
- Sophia Christie, director of alignment and coordination, Department of Health
- Mark Jennings, director of healthcare improvement, King’s Fund
Nigel Edwards kicked off proceedings with a cautionary note. The White Continue reading “A new UK government, a new healthcare ‘ice age’?” »
Regulatory Affairs Focus
This is the first in a series of in-depth features where we analyse the jobs market within a specific Industry sector.
Prospects within Regulatory Affairs have gradually increased over the past 12 months. In this period the number of Regulatory Affairs Jobs posted has increased by sixty percent and we now have over 500 unique jobs advertised on the site in this area. Encouragingly the number of applications has also increased by thirteen percent over the same period. The Evening Standard reported in September that there is high demand for UK pharmaceutical candidates in Regulatory Affairs, HEOR & statistical programming.
There is still a lack of entry level positions but we have seen a marked increase in RA Jobs within European HQ sites with roles becoming much more pan-European or globally focused.
Current Regulatory Affairs Jobs situation; Paul Foster, Resourcing Manager, Axess Ltd
At the recent Annual TOPRA Symposium I met up with Paul Foster, Resourcing Manager at Axess Ltd, to discuss the current regulatory Jobs Market.
Related Posts:
My career in Regulatory Affairs; Angela Miller, Director, Global Regulatory Affairs – Oncology, Eisai
Difficulties in securing your first role in Regulatory Affairs; Graduate perspective
Difficulties in securing your first role in Regulatory Affairs (continued)
Other resources:
• Careers with the Pharmaceutical Industry, Peter D. Stonier (Editor) has a Chapter titled ‘A Career in Product Registration and Regulatory Affairs’ by Dr Pat Turmer. You can LOOK INSIDE! on Page 203
• The TOPRA Guide to Careers in Regulatory Affairs [Paperback], Jenine Willis (Editor)
• Choosing the Right Regulatory Career, RAPS
My career in Regulatory Affairs; Angela Miller, Director, Global Regulatory Affairs – Oncology, Eisai
Angela Miller, Director, Global Regulatory Affairs – Oncology, Eisai
In the first of emedcareers’ series of interviews with some of the movers and shakers in the pharmaceutical sector we’ve spoken with Angela Miller, Director, Global Regulatory Affairs – Oncology, Eisai about her career experiences in Regulatory Affairs and asked her for her insider view on the jobs market.
1. What was your own career path? Continue reading “My career in Regulatory Affairs; Angela Miller” »
Difficulties in securing your first role in Regulatory Affairs; Graduate perspective
At the 2010 Annual TOPRA Symposium I met a recent graduate (who wishes to remain anonymous) whose experience of the problems faced looking for a first role in Regulatory Affairs reflects the lack of entry level positions highlighted in our data and Angela’s Q&A.
I graduated with an honours degree in 2003 and was lucky enough to get a contract position with a global company right away. Six months later I secured a permanent position in the same department I was working for, which was part of the early phases of drug discovery. After a few years of working in the laboratory I started looking around other sectors of the pharmaceutical business in search for areas where I could develop learn more skills. Regulatory Affairs (RA) was an area where I saw constant growth in terms of skills and development. It was an area where I could gain knowledge daily and put that into practice. I could see myself having developed various skills over the years that were appropriate for a regulatory role.
However I had no idea how difficult it would be for me to move into RA especially at an entry level position. Continue reading “Difficulties in securing your first Regulatory Affairs role” »
On Thursday 16th September The ICR Resourcing Special Interest Group, of which I am a member, hosted a “question time” style debate on the future of UK clinical Trials. The event was held at the very impressive Biomedical Research Centre on 16th Floor of Guy’s Hospital which offers spectacular views out over London.
In the red corner were:
- Alastair MacDonald – Study Program Director, AstraZeneca
- Amber Whybro – Clinical Solutions Director, Quintiles.
- Carol Parish – Director of Clinical Development/Head of EU in Emerging Markets, Stiefel
- Jane Bentley – Project Management Operations, Oncology Clinical Research
- Dennis Joseph – Area Head, Clinical Operations Europe, Pfizer
In the blue corner were:
- Alison Jeynes-Ellis – Medical and Innovation Director, ABPI
- Clare Morgan – Director for Industry, NIHR CRN
- Maria Palmer – Director of the UK NHS R&D Forum
- Jackie Powell – Director, Joint Clinical Trials Office, Guy’s Hospital
- Paul Wathall – Acting CEO for the ICR
Gareth Hayes, European head of training, Phlexglobal successfully refereed the event.
Q: Why has the UK failed to remain a prime location for Clinical Trials
Approximately 6% of the world’s clinical trials used to be conducted within the UK but that percentage has now dropped to between 1.5 and 2%. Between 2004 and 2009 the actual number of trials conducted in the UK dropped by one third.
Clare Morgan (CM) stated that this was due to Cost, Speed and Reliability. UK trials are just not cost-effective. They are expensive to run, slow to set-up and patient recruitment is a problem. Continue reading “Do Clinical Trials Have a Future in the UK?” »
European drug prices to be slashed stifling the development of new medicines and resulting in thousands of job losses.
Drug companies are expecting further price reductions to be enforced across Europe in the next 18 months.
European governments have started to introduce austerity measures in a trend that looks likely to continue in to 2011.
Greece
The most drastic austerity measures of any European country but this could have consequences across the region considering the affects of reference pricing and parallel imports. Drug prices have been cut between 20-27%.
I previously mentioned the situation in Greece in an earlier blog entry
Germany
Pharmaceutical companies have historically been able to set their own prices in German leading to some of the highest across Europe. The German government has proposed legislation to force drug prices based on a set cost-effectiveness criteria.
A price cap for patented drugs has also been introduced. These measures aim to reduce prices potentially save the German healthcare system around 2 billion euros a year. Continue reading “European drug prices to be slashed” »
Over the past few years the number of GP Representatives within the UK has halved with a shift to specialist Key Account Manager (KAM) role selling to local health managers within the 152 PCTs.
Andrew Lansley’s White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS released yesterday will turn this on its head and hand commissioning power back to GPs, in a similar system to the general practitioner fund-holding scheme introduced by the conservative Major government in 1991.
The Government proposals look to hand 80 per cent of the £105 billion NHS budget to consortia of GPs with an independent NHS commissioning board allocating budgets to these consortia.
Centre-right think tank Civitas states that there is little evidence suggesting GPs will be more effective at commissioning than PCTs. In its report Civitas suggests that the plans could well lead to a dip in NHS performance and wipe out any chance of achieving the £20bn efficiency savings target.
GPs themselves seem to have mixed views regarding the proposals. Whilst many believe this presents an opportunity for clinicians to lead from the front and make a real difference to their patients’ health it is also reported that many practices are not ready and the timeframe for implementation is extremely optimistic.
NHS Alliance press release
NAPC press release
In the white paper PCTs and SHAs will be scrapped and GPs will have full financial responsibility from April 2013. So over the next couple of years are we about to see a re-emergence of the primary care representative and the number of these jobs increase within the UK.
I was pleased to attend the Inaugural HR in Pharma Networking Event at the Royal College of Physicians, London on 25th June 2010 http://tinyurl.com/39oh8eh .This was kindly hosted by CK Clinical and provided a useful insight into current topics that affect recruitment in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
The first speaker was Fiona Coombe who is the Director of professional Services from the REC . Fiona gave us a useful insight into the role that the largest trade association in the private recruitment industry has to play in upholding quality. It was an interesting overview of how they maintain a code of professional practice and code of ethics in the £33Bn recruitment industry.
The second presentation was by Mike Taylor an expert in social Media recruitment. He offered insight into the growing use of web 2.0 . Arguably the biggest change in recruitment advertising since the introduction of job boards such as our very own www.emedcareeers.com.
It was interesting to learn about the success’s of some of the early adopters embracing this technology. It is an opportunity for the recruitment business to gain access to another demographic of candidate. As supermarkets learn more about our shopping habits and tempt us with targeted offers that match our personal tastes, the same is happening online .Search engines and social media sites are literally picking up on every word you type and targeting you with relevant advertising. This is evolving in sophistication every day and undoubtedly will become ever more viable medium for reaching potential candidates as they upload the global information highway with personal details about themselves.
There is no doubt that this does stretch media budgets ever more thinly and will affect the way our clients proportion their media budgets. It will also affect those businesses that are slow to become accustomed to web 2.0.In a finite market of jobs, every differentiator must surely help?
At emedcareers we are embracing the opportunities offered by social media to increase our candidate base and communicate with the market. You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gregholt
I would like to extend a big thank you to Jonathan, Ben, Cat and all at CK Clinical for what looks to become a very useful industry forum.
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