2013 Press Releases
Pharmacy students gain industrial experience
UCC Pharmacy students Doireann Ní Nuanáin and David Walsh spent four weeks in the QA department at Gilead Sciences undertaking their final year projects.
Doireann’s project was to determine the implications of the new EU Falsified Medicines Directive while David’s project involved reviewing the new guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) relating to process validation.
At the end of the four weeks both Doireann and David submitted reports to the Quality Assurance department of Gilead in Carrigtwohill.
This initiative is in its third year and involves two students gaining direct experience in a pharmaceutical company which operates in a highly regulated environment.
UCC Pharmacy graduate, Donal Coakley, is the industrial mentor for the project students and identifies and defines the project areas for each student. In addition, he ensures effective induction and then provides day-to-day supervision while the students are on site. He emphasises that ‘Gilead gains from the projects undertaken by the students. This year the students updated company procedures to reflect revised industry standards.’
Julie O’Neill, a pharmacist and currently Vice President Operations & General Manager of Gilead, highlights ‘the benefit of enhanced collaboration with the research teams in the university’ and she welcomes ‘the opportunity to raise the awareness of career opportunities within the pharmaceutical industry for Pharmacy graduates.’
Anita Maguire, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and academic mentor for the project students says ‘due to the careful project planning by the industrial mentor the students gain excellent insight into the day-to-day operation and challenges in a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical company.’