Letter From The Editors

By Pooja Shah, Dora Amene & Zeb Adomako-Mensah

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first PIPELINE edition of 2020. We hope that you had a restful break with your loved ones and are fully refreshed and ready for what lies ahead this year.

2019 was a busy year largely revolving around Brexit and what that means for all industries, including the pharmaceutical world. We hope that there is more clarity over the next few months. We have a jam-packed edition of PIPELINE with a variety of articles you will find interesting. Our President, Ejaz Butt, reflects on the highly successful PIPA conference last October and the key takeaways for the PIPA membership. We also present 3 delegate accounts of the sessions they found particularly useful. The inaugural PIPA Professional Awards introduced at conference were a huge success. We have an article which discusses how the nominations work and how you could end up being a winner at this year’s conference. Also featured are interviews from last year’s winners and how these awards have helped enhance their career development, soft skills and/or confidence building. The overall results from the UKMi survey of Medical Information (MI) departments are also presented in this edition which we hope will help MI teams improve their current service offerings. Following the Inspection Readiness session presented at conference, Martin Baker (Medical Information Manager at Alliance Pharmaceuticals Ltd and PIPA committee member) summarises the key messages and learnings on why inspection preparation is needed. We also present PIPA’s updated Medical Information Inspection/Audit checklist which covers key elements to bear in mind regarding this topic. Have you heard of IR35? What’s changing and when? Liam O’Connell, Director of CK Group examines the changes to the IR35 legislation and its impact on contractors in the pharmaceutical industry. Ever wondered what biostatisticians in pharmaceutical companies get up to? Natasa Rajicic, ScD Principal, Strategic Consulting, Cytel Inc offers an interesting perspective on the role, specifically with regard to clinical trials, and how it interlinks with other aspects of the clinical development pathway of a drug. For many professionals, the opportunity to work in a different country for at least part of their career is hugely appealing. Julia Day, EU Divisional Manager at CK Group, offers a look at considerations for medical information and pharmacovigilance professionals seeking to move from a role in the UK to one overseas. We also feature an interesting article by Fintan Moore where he reflects on 20 years of writing monthly columns for the Irish Pharmacist. The above represent just a few of the many fascinating articles we have compiled for this edition and we hope that you thoroughly enjoy them. The committee continues to work tirelessly to ensure that PIPA drives operational excellence and enhances and shares best practices for medical information and pharmacovigilance across our membership. To that end, please look out for the following over the next few months: • Regular webinars covering medical Information and pharmacovigilance hot topics • Face to face and online training courses for continuous professional development • Guidance documents about medical information and pharmacovigilance standards • PIPA Conference 2020 • Code Compliance and Managers’ forums • …and much more!

As always, all feedback is welcomed, and we encourage you to interact with us, and the wider PIPA membership, via our online platforms below: • Official PIPA Website: https://www.pipaonline.org/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ pipa-pharmaceutical-information-andpharmacovigilance-association • Twitter: @PIPAtweet

Details of all our current training offerings and webinars will also be communicated via these online platforms. Until the next edition of PIPELINE, we hope you have a great start to the year and a delightful winter. If you want to contribute to PIPELINE, please feel free to contact us at journaleditor@pipaonline.org.