Welcome to the first edition of the PDA Ireland newsletter fulfilling one of our priorities for 2018.
2018 has been a fantastic year so far for the Irish chapter. I want to take this opportunity to update you on progress against our objectives for 2018/ 2019 that we shared with you at the beginning of the year.
These came under four pillars as follows:
- Communication - the key focus in this space was improving our on-line presence through our chapter page and LinkedIn and launching our newsletter – Elizabeth has done a fantastic job in ensuring we are delivering in this space.
- Events – the target was four/ five events in 2018 with some being technical and others being strategic in content. To date we had a very successful cleaning validation event hosted in NIBRT which consisted of workshops and discussion. Thanks to Enda and the team for organising the event. This was followed in May by the Annex 1 event which was co-hosted with PDA Europe.
Still to come in 2018 – we have:
- Advances in process simulation – case studies & discussion on 04th October in the Clayton Hotel, Dublin Airport.
- The rise of outsourcing in the Pharma industry & managing change activities on 22nd November in the Crowne Plaza Hotel , Blanchardstown, Dublin. This is a free event and very importantly will incorporate our AGM, which I encourage you to attend.
A very sincere thanks to our event organising teams this year who have done an excellent job in ensuring all events were of a professional standard and met the expectations of our attendees.
A discussion on events would not be complete without mentioning the fantastic work done by our Young Professionals working group in 2018 led by Paul Hawkins and Alan Kelly –this included a roadshow taken to a number of colleges and culminates with a YP event centred around Quality Culture at Sanofi on 14th November.
- Collaboration – we collaborated with BPCI to deliver the cleaning validation event and are delighted to have Enda Dempsey from BPCI on the chapter committee in 2018. A big thank you to HPRA who have been very supportive in speaking at our events and we are also collaborating with the colleges to sponsor research which would benefit our chapter members.
We awarded student bursaries to two of our successful applicants - Aoife Clancy & Shane Murphy to attend the PDA Europe event in June. An excellent summary of Aoife’s experience at the event is on our chapter page at www.PDA.org. Additionally, we sponsored Gavin Kinsella from DIT who was a YP Speaker at the PDA Europe event.
The PDA Ireland chapter is sponsoring an award at the Irish Pharma awards in October this year – this gives great visibility to our chapter across the industry as it is referenced in all communications on the event.
- Finance – in 2018 we took the decision to seek sponsorship from interested companies and we have had a fantastic response and now have six great companies partnered with us.
This sponsorship has been a key enabler in allowing us to improve the experience for our members and those who attend our events.
Finally, a very sincere thanks to you; the members of our Irish chapter who continue to contribute to our success and provide us with feedback to ensure we continue to strive to meet your needs,
Le chéile tá muid níos láidre (Together we are stronger),
Declan Quinlan,
President Irish Chapter