PSA

EPSAEXPERIENCE

IRISH PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

Nov, 2014Issue 1

IN THIS EDITIONThe EPSA experience: why you

should get involved!

The life of a qualified person (QP)Professional career profile

P R E S I D E N T I A LF O R E W O R D

Dear Reader,

Thank you for picking up the first edition of the IPSA Newsletter!Now just a little past its first birthday, I have proudly presided over and watched as IPSA has went from strength to strength over the past few months. Your classmates, the IPSA committee, have done fantastic work and I’m proud to say that together we have achieved many things that once seemed impossible.

Over the past few months, we have organised a number of fantastic academic and social events and I hope you enjoyed them. Bigger and better is on the way with many exciting new events and projects so be sure to follow us on social media to hear things first!

IPSA has united Irish pharmacy students - but that is not all. In fact, what drove the formation of IPSA was the opportunity to return Ireland to the international stage. The door to Europe has been re-opened and after nearly a decade of inactivity, Ireland has been welcomed back in to EPSA (European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association). Old traditions are being revived and for the first time in many years, Irish pharmacy students are touring Europe again attending EPSA events joining students from 33 other countries.

Our newsletter is written by students for students so I hope you find the articles interesting and an enjoyable read!

Mena EskanderFounding President

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On Friday the 31st of October, three Irish pharmacy students travelled to Hradec Králové in the Czech Re-public to attend the Autumn Assembly of the Europe-

an Pharmaceutical Students’ Association. Mena Eskander and Turlough Heffernan, the President and International Liaison Officer of IPSA respectively, as well as Dominic Redmond, President of the pharmacy society in Trinity College departed from Dublin airport with only limited knowledge of what the weekend ahead would entail. Mena had been to the previous Autumn Assembly, but for the other two students this was an entirely novel experience. The purpose of this trip was to make a presentation to the 41 member associations of EPSA on behalf of the Irish Pharma-ceutical Students’ Association, in the hopes that IPSA would be accepted as Ordinary Members of EPSA. This was an immensely important task for an organisation as new as IPSA because it would provide validation on an international level. EPSA represents around 160,000 pharmacy students across the continent and we strongly believed that Irish students should not be excluded from that. Friday night was not the night for business however. Instead, a

Uniform Party was organised to allow everyone to get to know each other better. And so it was that three Irishmen dressed as a nun, a racing car driver and a chemical engineer found themselves dancing in an abandoned military aircraft hangar with a couple of hundred students from across Europe. It was certainly one of the most memorable Halloween nights of our lives! Saturday morning soon arrived, and with it the General Assembly. The GA is essentially the parliament of EPSA and it is held twice a year. Mena presented our application to the assembled attendees and then answered their questions about the affairs of the society. After this, we were asked to wait outside while the assembly discussed whether or not to accept us as Ordinary Members. Thankfully, when the doors were opened again we were greeted with rapturous applause and a very warm welcome into the association. The benefits of this can’t be overstated, particularly in terms of the opportunities that have now opened up to Irish phar-macy students. Many Irish students simply don’t have the connections that enable them to work abroad, regardless of how highly motivated and skilled they may be. We anticipate that the development of stronger links with other European students will ameliorate this situation. For example, EPSA’s mobility department works to increase cultural awareness by organising short term exchanges and to facilitate collaboration with other health care professions. For the remainder of the weekend, we took advantage of our newly gained voting rights to actively participate in the Gen-eral Assembly. On Saturday night, a Gala Dinner was planned. Obviously there were mixed emotions as everyone would have loved if the assembly could have lasted longer but overall the congress was a huge success. Of course, we’re certain that we will have many more opportu-nities to see everyone involved in EPSA. This is only the start of the journey!

EPSA experience

by Turlough HeffernanEuropean/International liaison officer

3Issue 1, Volume 1 | Nov 2014

Mena Eskander taking questions after the presentation

PROFESSIONAL CAREER PROFILELife of a QP

PROFESSIONAL CAREER PROFILELife of a QP

Anna Bradley Director of QualityAstellas Ireland

Pharmacy is a fantas-tic degree for anyone to have! The options

available post your degree range across many differ-ent areas. Each month here at IPSA, we wish to present you the students with these options to gain an invalu-able insight into what these careers involve, the good, the bad and what you as a student should think about when choosing the path to follow. For the very first is-sue we chat to Anna Brad-

ley who is the Quality Director for Astellas. We would very much like to thank her chatting to us and allowing us to learn more about her work.

What tasks would your typical week involve?I am site Quality Director for a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing site. This involves being responsible for the Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Qualified Person functions within the site. As part of the senior management team of a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturing plant my typical week involves extremely varied activities:• Management of the daily activities of the site, which manufac-tures solid oral dosage and aseptic products• Ensuring the all medicinal products are manufactured in accor-dance with GMP and applicable regulations• Ensuring that all materials and products are tested and only product which meets its specifications is released for use or for sale. • Numerous meetings to discuss items such as Mid Term Plan-ning, Resources, Budgeting as well as quality issues, trouble-shooting and HR management • Communication with my Astellas colleagues in Quality Assur-ance, Regulatory Affairs, Technical Support and Compliance. Communications can be email, teleconferences and video con-ferences. Being a part of a multinational means that work never sleeps due to international time-zones!• Review and approval of documentation – be it SOPs, investiga-tion reports, regulatory documents etc.• Travel to other parts of the organisation • Review progress of projects on the site • Continuous assessment of the performance of the site in terms of quality, cost, safety metrics

What do you feel are the most challenging and most enjoyable aspects of your job?The most challenging aspect of my job is the “management” part of my job, including financial and budgeting responsibilities. I enjoy being part of the management team and I enjoy working with my colleagues abroad, although I do sometimes miss being

more involved in the technical aspects of the site. With career progression, comes an inevitable distance from “doing”. I am also lucky have the opportunity to travel with my job, which allows me to forge a good working relationship with my global colleagues. I travel mainly within Europe and to Tokyo, where Quality Assurance for the company is headquartered.

Did you feel prepared to enter the workforce after your primary degree and did you obtain any further qualifi-cations after your B.Sc Pharm/M. Pharm degree?I was certainly prepared from the scientific and technical per-spective. Pharmacy is a wonderful degree in that you get a broad education, which allows you to have a general understanding of all aspects of pharmacy. This is really useful in terms of interpret-ing data, understanding technical issues and assessing problems.However, I certainly was not prepared from a managerial and HR skillset point of view and I have completed a certificate in management practice in IMI as well as leadership skills in IN-SEAD.

What experience do you feel has been relevant and helped you along your career?Having completed my pre-registration year in both community and industrial pharmacy helped me to confirm that my Phar-macy career would be in industrial pharmacy, I really enjoy the variety in this sector and the career progression opportunities which are open to me as a result.

What do you feel has been most instrumental in you being where you are now in your career?I had an excellent tutor in my industrial pre-registration place-ment. He ensured that I was exposed to all areas within the phar-maceutical manufacturing site where I was training. This gave me an ambition to progress within the industry.In addition, having a Pharmacy degree means that there was a wealth of opportunities open to me, allowed me to become a Qualified Person in my current company, which was the stepping stone to where I am now. Of course, hard work and long hours helped too!

If you could give advice to a student who was interest-ed in going down a similar direction to you, what advice would you give?Make sure that part of your internship is done in pharmaceutical industry; this really helps when trying to find a job in the indus-try. Make the pharmacy degree and your skills a selling point, including an automatic entitlement to become a QP, with the ap-propriate service.

INTERVIEWED BYJason HayesVice-President

5Issue 1, Volume 1 | Nov 2014

6Issue 1, Volume 1 | Nov 2014

MAKE sure you take part in the Pharmacy student sur-

vey. With the changes ongo-ing in Pharmacy education in Ireland, now is the time

to share your views and ex-periences to help shape the

future of Pharmacy in Ireland!

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING

17th October Westin Hotel

WE hope you all had a fantastic time at the IPSA Pharmacy Ball held in the Westin Hotel last month.

We’d also like to extend a very special thank you to our two sponsors, the IPU and PIER for their continued assistance.

get i n v o l v e d

IPSA needs you!

THE positions of events officer and education officer are still vacant. If you’re interested in fur-rther details or applying, please send an email to info@ipsa-online.com

Irish Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

EDITOR

Kyle Malone

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Mena Eskander

CONTRIBUTORS

Mena Eskander

Turlough Heffernan

Jason Hayes

SPECIAL THANKSPIER and Anna Bradley (Astellas)

This publication is the responsibility of the Irish Pharmaceutical Students’ Association.

For advertising or to write for IPSA please contact info@ipsa-online.com

PERSONNEL