Representing interests across 55 member companies from Ireland’s pharmaceutical and chemical industries is a huge brief. Exec discovers how Pharmachemical Ireland keeps up
by Hannah Eiseman-Renyard
Pharmachemical Ireland was established in 1994 as a branch within the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). With a brief to represent the needs of the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing industries in Ireland, it represents 55 member companies through a variety of committees and working groups.
The real strength of Pharmachemical Ireland comes from its membership: counting companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Allergan, Biovail, Elan, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, Roche, and Pfizer amongst its members. A huge amount of industry know-how enriches the organisation. “You can’t really get any more experienced than the people that will be showing up … managers or sometimes CEOs … that’s the kind of level of experience you’re getting and that’s really different,” says Executive James Ring.
Pharmachemical Ireland’s working groups meet regularly to identify issues facing the industry, and the highly qualified staff then work toward solutions. Ring is one such highly-qualified executive: with a degree in environmental science and a Phd in environmental chemistry, his experience is broadened by his time lecturing at a university, and working in the public sector. Now specialising in Education and Public Affairs within Pharmachemical Ireland, Ring appreciates what a difference the skills and experience of the staff makes.
“Every one of us is very specialised in what we do – there’s high-level qualifications and there’s a lot of experience behind it,” he says. “We’ve all worked in the industry and now work on the lobbying side of it.”
So what precisely does that lobbying involve? “Whatever is pressing and worrying for the industry: we deal with it and that’s the way it works.” With a remit so clear, and yet so broad, Pharmachemical Ireland has various divisions to meet the industry challenges head on. “Pharmachem is split into different divisions where you have the director, followed by a number of executives, and the administration support,” says Ring. “Each of the executives look after certain areas. My area is Education, Environment and Public Affairs.”
The Education group works to maintain educational standards assuring “that there’s quality graduates coming through in science to keep the industry strong… Our government has put a lot of money towards developing a strong R&D in Ireland, through Science Foundation Ireland,” says Ring, “but a lot of companies felt there’s a case that Phds should tie-in more closely with an actual company. The student could work maybe half the week in the lab on a company site and get that industrial experience and make all projects industrially relevant. Then suddenly you have R&D that’s ready to be used by the industry.”
The role of Pharmachemical Ireland is also to keep the industry informed and safe. The Director of the new EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of Chemical substances. (REACH), Nessa Moyles, is also a Pharmachemical Ireland executive, and has recently set up technical seminars and training days to explain the new regulations to the industry.
Meanwhile, Pharmachemical Ireland’s new Process Safety group was set up to spread safety information anonymously. “There was an incident in one of the plants in Ireland where an explosion occurred … the thing about it is chemistry and what could happen on one site could very easily happen on another site, so in the best interests of the industry: the companies will share that information.” Therefore, reports can be submitted and distributed through Pharmachemical Ireland, “it will come through us and that way it’s anonymous as to who actually sent it,” says Ring.
The Irish pharmachemical industry is certainly strong at the moment, “the advantage Ireland has,” says Ring, “is that it’s got a long, long, track record at this stage and fairly much all of the big companies are based here anyway. There’s a huge amount of investment in Ireland.” Though the economy is becoming increasingly troubled, and Pfizer recently closed a plant in Cork, Ring is confident about the future. “Of course is the global slowdown is of course going to affect our industry like it will affect anyone else’s … and there’s a bit of a shake-up at the moment but generally the industry is still very, very strong.” Pharmachemical Ireland is looking forward, and already addressing global challenges such as the fuel crisis. “Energy costs are going to be a huge thing in the future,” says Ring, “companies are talking about creating their own generators on site and using renewables but I think if they’re doing that then they should be entitled to grants and whatnot from authorities. So we work on seeing where we could get money to help companies to build that kind of a plant and reduce their energy costs.”
So what changes can we expect from the Irish Pharmachemical Industry? “The biggest change the industry is facing is from pharmaceutical to biopharmaceutical. ….but our remit is still ‘whatever the industry feels they need: we deal with.”