Letter From The Editors

By Pooja Shah

Welcome to the Autumn edition of PIPELINE! And what a year it has been: from the successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines to the easing of restrictions and life returning to as “normal’ as it has felt in over 16 months, to the UEFA Euros 2020 and the Olympics. It is great to see a return to celebrations with family and friends in larger numbers and the option to travel abroad. Have you been away or are you planning a trip abroad? Whether you have taken the plunge to get on a plane or decided the UK is a better option for you right now, we hope you have all managed to get a well-deserved break and had some R&R time. With all the changes that have taken place this year, the uncertainty remains. Cleo Whitehead has written a brilliant article on dealing with uncertainty which we hope some of you will find helpful.

September seems to be a pivotal month for companies making provisions for staff returning to the office, ending the 18-month working from home spell. Whilst that’s great news for some of us, there are others who are not in a huge rush to return to the office full time. This edition of PIPELINE has a fantastic article written by Julia Day from CK Group on returning to the office and another article by Lauren Hursthouse on working from home. The PIPA Committee made a conscious decision to keep this year’s annual PIPA conference virtual again. We felt it was better to take the conservative approach once more, as we couldn’t predict the current situation when preparations started, and the safety of our members is always paramount. However, the PIPA 2021 virtual conference was not one to be missed. For the first time, we had two presentations by the MHRA as well as many other topical sessions - plus the usual networking opportunities with our speakers and delegates, as well as the opportunity to ‘meet’ our exhibiters. In this busy edition, we are delighted to present you with a wide range of articles. Our Vice-President has written an insightful article on ‘How to connect Pharmacovigilance with respective teams’. Ka-Mei Au’s piece on artificial intelligence in clinical trials is an informative read as AI is everywhere, and definitely seems to be the way forward for our industry. Another one of our committee members, Anne Lloyd, has written a fantastic article on how reference safety information should be used, tackling common inspection findings from the MHRA. For the last 5 years, reference safety information has been a hot topic with the regulatory authorities and many blogs and papers have been written on this topic: we’re delighted to include PIPA’s contribution to this ongoing discussion. We’ve listed only a few of our many topical articles that we have collated for this edition, and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to interact with us and the other PIPA members via our online platforms. On that note, we hope to ‘see’ you all online at one of our events in the near future. We’re sure this busy but eventful year will continue to play out for the remaining 3 months. Make it count and stay safe! If you want to make a contribution to PIPELINE, please feel free to contact us at journaleditor@pipaonline.org.

Pooja Shah

PIPELINE Editor