What is the future of pharmacovigilance?
Pharmacovigilance plays an essential role in the drug lifecycle by monitoring adverse effects and determining the risk vs benefit of new pharmaceutical products. With the pharmacovigilance market seeing frequent changes in European Medicines Agency (EMA) guidelines, it’s increasingly important to consider, and prepare for, the future of the industry. We spoke with Robert Steel, Real Staffing’s pharmacovigilance specialist, to find out what the future looks like in terms of recruitment.
How pharmacovigilance has performed
Previously, the majority of European pharmacovigilance professionals have been based in the UK and had to rapidly adapt to changes in EMA guidelines. When changes occur, pharmacovigilance professionals have to be meticulous with their management of monitoring the risks and benefits of new pharmaceutical products. With the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there’s been an increase in safety development and signal detection restrictions to keep all data secure, which has created a higher demand for professionals within pharmacovigilance.
The potential futures of pharmacovigilance
Political uncertainty has created a buzz within the pharmacovigilance community, which has led to the EMA moving their UK office to Amsterdam. As a result, we’ve seen an increase in professionals also considering the move to Europe; otherwise they will face having to compete for less local QPPV (Qualified Person in Pharmacovigilance) jobs in the UK.
As previously mentioned, there’s been even more focus on data safety restrictions recently, creating more jobs to maintain the security of data, post-GDPR enforcement. We’re seeing a growing demand for Pharmacovigilance Officers, and Risk Management specialists. A lot of QPPVs are facing an uncertain future, with a lot of them believing that the trend of moving into contract roles in the UK is only a temporary boom in the contract industry.
The impact on recruitment
With questions around which companies are leaving the UK, more pharmaceutical organisations are looking to hire contract professionals. As Robert explains, ‘One common practice that a lot of pharmaceutical companies are adopting is outsourcing full pharmacovigilance consultancies to manage the entire operations side of pharmacovigilance.’ With hiring managers dealing with things on a project to project basis, there’s an increased demand for contractors to handle the data management side of the process.
Are you looking for your next pharmacovigilance role? Have you felt the need for more contract professionals? Contact us to speak with our pharmacovigilance team about how we can meet your requirements.
