As we are seeing an upturn in the requirement for excellent Quality staff, we thought it’d be interesting to collate the course that can lead to the QP or “Qualifed Person” status in Ireland.

Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) – MSc / Postgrad Diploma in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) – MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology

IT Sligo – MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology

Edit – there’s University College, Cork (UCC) also – Masters in Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems

To our knowledge these are the 4 currently on offer. Most are run on a 2 year part-time basis, where attendance is required a number of times per semester. They are semi-distance learning, so to speak. The requirements for these courses are generally just a scientific degree plus 2+ years of Quality experience in a regulated industry. They are a great way to kick-start your career if the support network within your current employer exists.

For relevant quality opportunities, check out our QualityAssurance.ie site.

Comments or questions? – Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

We’ve all been writing web-content in our sleep, with the result that there are many new sites live and would really appreciate you taking the time to look through and them and mot importantly…LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS.

Connected Health.ie: the first recruitment site in Ireland focussed towards this growing area of the economy. A recent conference highlighted this, at which Eamonn and Brian were proud sponsors and advertisers. Brian’s LinkedIn group is almost at 50 members, please do join up if you’re active in this area.

Pharmaceutical.ie – has just been relaunched, we think its a lot more relevant and useful, with career profiles and industry advice in different sub-areas of the Pharmaceutical industry.

Biotechnology.ie – were quite proud of picking up this domain name when we did! The site is colourful, functional and will constantly evoloving according to Client and Candidate demands as things progress, like all of our sites. FYI Mr Conor Lenihan, evolution DOES exist!!!

MedicalDevice.ie – James is delighted to launch this, he also created a LinkedIn group to support it. The site is getting a lot of traffic as it’s one area of the economy as whole which seems to be gathering some momentum.

Eamonn was featured in the Sunday Business Post this week – the link is here. Apologies for the SBP site link, it’s not great, is it?!

We’ll be launching and re-launching some more sites in the next 2 weeks, announcements will be made here and on Twitter / Facebook as we go along. Outside of these announcements we’ve all had a great Summers, even though we’re not really looking forward to finishing work when it’s dark in the evenings!

As always we’re delighted to hear your feedback on the sites, particularly the new ones above.

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

It’s been a great Summer in Life Science Towers, lots and lots of busy heads running around.

New jobs in this month are as usual, varied and quite specialised.

Richard is working hard on these role
Product Specialist (Nationwide) – Pharma. An ethical pharma company with a niche range of products in the blood transfusion market.
Key Account Manager (Europe). A role requiring previous experience in Blood Typing and Antibodies. The role can be based anywhere in Europe.

Eamonn always wants to hear from good Medical Science Liaisons. He also has a great industrial role for an experienced Medical Scientist and is seeking a Quality Manager for a Dublin hospital, amongst (many many) others!

James is seeking experienced Quality Engineers and a Balloon Engineer for a South-East based Client.

I’m working on an attractive Apps Specialist role within Life Science microscopy. PhD preferred. Other roles include CRA / Clinical Operation Specialist and QAV Engineering roles.

UCC have also posted a Professor of Life Sciences role on the site.

Connected Health
Eamonn and I will be at the Connected Health conference on Thursday in Dundalk. It will be interesting to meet the other companies up there. This coincides with an article we’ve done on the topic which will be in the issue 3 2010 Life Science Review magazine. An intensely interesting area in which lot of great work is being done. We are also just about to press the green button on our specialised Connected Health site I’ve also started a Connected Health LinkedIn group, please do join up.

If you think we can help you in any way or you just want some advice, do give us a call. We like to talk

Crossing fingers for 2 more weeks of sunshine, that’ll make up for a mixed Summer so far…..

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot it)

I feel the same goes for start-up company names. I would love to know how much time people spend thinking them up. They have to be short, zingy and most important of all: PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC!!!

Some common terms:

-cel (diagnostics / life science companies)

-bio (for life science / biotech)

-pharma

-med (for medical device companies)

If you can squeeze two into your company name your chances of success are immediately doubled.

Mix these pre/suffixes with terms like vista- (Life) vas- (the cardiac system), tek-, tech- (it’s cutting edge!) or similar. If you want to absolutely guarantee success, follow the rules above and it will result in stock market floatation and a huge pay-off for founding company directors within 5 years*

Disclaimer: we are aware of the irony of our own company name!

*not a guarantee

-Brian (bhc at lifescience.ie)

Brian Christensen from Life Science Recruitment examines how the recent economic difficulties have affected the Life Sciences industry in Ireland.

The Life Science industry in Ireland has weathered the economic storm relatively unscathed. A sweeping statement perhaps? But one we believe to be true. There are a number of points to be noted when assessing the current situation.

The Brain Drain

With 1,000 PhD’s scheduled to graduate this year, are there job for these candidates? Currently, it seems, the answer is no. Reliable PhD employers like Wyeth/Pfizer have frozen recruitment due to the current merger. Recruitment has also slowed down in relation to PhD recruitment with Abbott. The overwhelming result is that more PhDs are staying in academia, and are not contributing ideas to industry. Many are seeking work in more buoyant markets and also outside mainstream science – in areas such as sales and marketing and business consultancy. However, on the commercialization of research, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

A 7.5% increase in capital committed to start ups in 2008 was noted, which was also 26% up on 2006. Many of these start-ups are based around special incubation centres on university campuses like the Nova Centre in UCD and the Ignite Centre in Galway. The take-home message seems to be there are still attractive and viable options out there for ambitious researchers who have pioneering technology to bring to market. Recent success stories include Cappella Medical Devices in Galway and Merrion Pharma in Dublin.

Governmental Plans

For those that suggest preparation is key, our governmental organisations would tend to agree, certainly judging by recent actions. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland (EI) in recent times have sourced planning application approvals for 2 “plug and play” Biopharma campuses, one based in Galway and the other in Dundalk. This makes it easier for these bodies to attract potential Clients, although the argument could be made for the apparent lack of potential new blockbuster drugs in the current global pipeline which would warrant such sites. However, having these options ready to go means we are gearing up for the market to shift in the right direction, and positioning correctly for when new investments need to be made. Another issue on the horizon is how long can we keep hold of our magical 12.5% corporate tax rate? Obama has made it clear that it is something he is not happy about, and the EU has sent signals to similar effect. This could have a hugely detrimental effect on all sectors of our economy were it to ultimately materialise.

Recent Industry Movements

There have been a number of new investments in the country this year, including the further development of the Athlone Medical Device hub, encompassing companies like Teleflex, Utah Medical, Abiomed, KCI Medical, Georgia Tech, as well as the clinical research organisation PPD. Other investments and expansions include worldwide manufacturers like Millipore in Cork and Merck-Sharpe & Dohme in Carlow. This is encouraging when considering Ireland within the scheme of global markets; we are still an attractive place to invest. However, a number of questions still linger. The most pertinent of these would seem to be the fallout from Pfizer’s purchase of Wyeth. As Wyeth has a number of high profile plants here in Ireland, it will be interesting how Pfizer judges them in the global context of their operations. The Grange Castle site would seem to be in good hands due to its modernity, but the Newbridge site is 38 years old, so may not have a future quite so bright.

Job Areas to Focus On

On a more micro level, we have noticed a number of areas where job shortages seem to be present, at least from our viewpoint. As there has been a historical lack of biotech in this country, experience up- and downstream process engineers, as well as micro professionals with biotech experience, are strongly in demand. Regulatory affairs have been tightened up in recent times, resulting in a constant need to regulatory professionals in various areas. We are also noticed a lot of outsourcing in this area. There has been a lot of expansion in the Clinical Affairs / Clinical Research area. Larger companies like ICON and Quintiles are going strong, with numerous smaller companies making market gains with pioneering new technologies like electronic data capture (EDC). As EDC is something relatively new to the CRO marketplace, companies are still coming to terms with the regulatory adjustments necessary to accommodate it, resulting in a number of positions here. In Clinical Affairs, niche specialist roles like medical advisory and medical science liaison roles seems to be in constant demand.

Job Seeking

We have also examined how the web-savvy jobseeker who is on the lookout has adapted to these difficulties and market needs. According to our research, almost 70% of people have started to use multiple resourcing techniques, such as direct searches on search engines as opposed to just job boards. There is also a trend toward a more niche targeted jobseeker, with many opting for niche industry job sites and industry specialist portals, such as lifescience.ie. People are using social networks to connect and talk, which inevitably results in people finding jobs here too. LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter (to a lesser extent) are being embraced by the informed jobseeker. Google searches are becoming more popular as internet penetration continues to rise. In a market as tough as this, it pays to have a number of people who are taking a keen interest in any potential opportunities available, which these sites do perfectly. We see this market as continuing to adapt as new and better technologies become available. We would describe the forecast for next year as being cautious but quietly optimistic, although it will very much be governed by decisions by the global players who have made the aforementioned market shifting moves.

Classing medical devices

In the EU all medical devices must be issued with a Certificate of Conformity, by a Notified Body (in Ireland the IMB). Various risk classes:

High risk (similar to Class I – USFDA): used in critical care, whose failure is likely to seriously injure the patient or staff. Examples include incubators and aspirators

Medium risk (similar to Class IIa/b – USFDA): These are devices including many diagnostic instruments whose misuse, failure or absence with no replacement available would have a significant effect on the patient, but would not be likely to cause direct serious injury. Examples include: ECGs or endoscopes.

Low risk devices (Similar to Class III – USFDA): Devices in this category are those whose failure or misuse is unlikely to result in serious consequences. Examples include: surgical microscope or breast pumps.

Key Acronyms

IQ/OQ/PQ              Installation Qualification, Operational Qualification, Performance Qualification

GHTF                     Global Harmonization Task Force

STED                     Standard Technical Documents

CAPA                     Corrective Action and Preventive Action

Job Areas

Various Medical Device Engineering positions

-Quality. Deals with most of the above, also customer complaints. Degree of hands-on responsibilities can vary between company to company

-Validation: similar to Validation in the Pharmaceutical field, with various equipment being validated

-Research and Development (R&D) Engineering: concerns the various stages of R&D engineers, from concept to prototype, working through to the final product to be approved. Also important when considering new applications to current approved devices or making alterations.

Within these areas there are smaller, more niche engineering vacancies, such as moulding engineers, quality systems engineer, customer complaints engineers, environmental, health and safety (EHS) engineers, regulatory affairs.

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Pharma / Medical Device Sales. My colleague Richard is always on the lookout for superb candidates who have extensive experience in these areas. All of the roles on Sales and Marketing.ie are live and he is always easy to reach at the end of the phone.

In Science / Healthcare, there are a couple of areas attracting interest:

Drug Safety / Pharmacovigilance / Medical Science Liaison: This is an area we are seeing a high level of demand in. We have a number of roles available in different therapeutic areas, some requiring a Medical training, some looking for a nurse and others needing someone with a higher level qualification in the spoecific area.

Microbiology: We currently have 2 Micro lab manager position available, together with some lower level roles for less experienced Microbiologists.

Healthcare: in healthcare currently we have a couple of interesting roles in audiology / hearing aids, together with a Nurse Manager vacancy, both permanent roles with private organisations.

As always, we’re on the end of the phone to give advice, whether it’s help with a CAO form (you’d be surprised!), a graduate looking to assitance with job searching, right up to consuilting with executives looking to take the next step, so get in touch.

NOT in Science: well for me, it’s running. There seems to be a huge amount of people taking to the streets to get fit, which is great. Good luck to everyone training for the Dublin City Marathon on the 26th, for me it’s all about not overexerting myself and staying injury / sickness free until then. I’m looking to quality for Boston in under 3 hr 11 min, pressure is on!

Oh, and of course Google Wave and Dublinbikes, both of which are soooo hot right now!

Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)