People and Talent: The real foundation of a flourishing life science industry

What do most Life Science companies have in common? What makes them thrive? There is a common need in almost all Life Science businesses, and that is the need to innovate and to translate those ideas into commercially viable treatments and products. Talent attracts talent and together they build innovative environments and promote growth. One such company well known for their contribution to supporting companies in this sector achieve their business goals is Swedish owned, Nordic structured consulting firm PharmaRelations.

The core idea of most consulting firms in the industry is to guide and support companies in Life Science to grow, to flourish and develop to become the very best version of what they can be. But what does this actually mean? What services are needed to make it happen?

“There are no universal solutions to fit all. That is perhaps the most important aspect to consider. Our clients are unique, even if they develop similar solutions, the path to reach their goal will be different. That is why our company have over the years gathered many different types of expertise to offer our clients experienced multidisciplinary teams in response to their needs”, says Aina Illiano, Consultant Manager and responsible for building PharmaRelations’ team in Gothenburg.

Aina has worked within the Life Science industry for 22 years. After having various roles within IT, Clinical and Patient Safety Aina felt that to work with PharmaRelations would be a perfect opportunity to put all her years of knowledge to greater good for the entire industry. After all as Aina mentions “why support just one company when you can help many on their growth journey, this is far more rewarding”. It is with this depth of industry experience that Aina and her colleagues can swiftly identify gaps and opportunities for organisations in the sector.

What does this really mean in reality? We took the opportunity to ask some of the skilled consultants more about the local operations. Louise Kvistgaard, Nadja Madorski, Alexandra Vu, Amjad Mazloum and Henrik Ahlbom are all part of PharmaRelations in Gothenburg and providing various expertise to customers.

Louise Kvistgaard explains that quality assurance go hand in hand with meeting regulatory requirements. Louise’s department at PharmaRelations, Regulatory Services, is currently expanding as we experience an influx of requests from companies who need support with quality assurance, regulatory services or pharmacovigilance.

“We are a GCP QA group who provides GCP QA support to primarily smaller clients at an early stage in their clinical development. This support consists of designing a quality system and defining processes that cover the customer’s minimum needs to meet regulatory requirements. It can also be to help the customer with the qualification of their suppliers (audits and other qualification activities)” says Louise.

Many companies do not need full-time QA GCP support from the start and we are offering both short and long-term assignments for different customers in parallel, either remotely or on site at the customer’s location, depending on the customer’s needs.

Nadja Madorski, another consultant at PharmaRelations works in a Drug Product Delivery department, primarily but not only assisting with GMP and supply chain expertise. “All companies require expert advice when it comes to these activities, as the regulatory standards are so high and also continuously changing” says Madorski.

Nadja is a pharmacist with many years of experience from the operational activities of manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Fellow pharmacist and biochemist Alexandra Vu, works as a Quality Assurance specialist (QA)

“I have worked with both commercial medicine and clinical trial material. I ensure that the material meets GxP standards and regulatory requirements”, says Alexandra. There are so many interesting career opportunities in this industry.

Amjad Mazloum is new to PharmaRelations, he is also a pharmacist with 10+ years of experience from taking various roles within life science and public health sectors. “My current assignment is to ensure that the design and development of drug-device combination products such as inhalers are executed and delivered with the highest quality and conforming to all applicable, regulations, requirements and standards.” Amjad says.

Expanding the team

At PharmaRelations, there is always a keen interest in expanding with experts that can complement the team. As from June this year, Data Manager and Statistician Henrik Ahlbom is a valuable member of the team in Gothenburg.

Having worked with pharmaceutical development as well as the development of medical devices for 30 years, Henrik has in-depth knowledge of all data and documentation requirements, as well as a lot of regulatory experience.

“I joined PharmaRelations because I appreciate a challenge. I wanted to broaden my area of expertise, working with various clients in different areas. This is exactly what I get at PharmaRelations”, says Henrik.

“We feel privileged to be a part of contributing to the life science ecosystem in VGR and look forward to continue to work with so many inspiring companies and people”, Aina Illiano.