Welcome From Paul Merrick, Chair of the Pharmaceuticals Technical Activity Committee


Contents: Issue 1



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 Paul Merrick
[November 2007] My name is Paul
Merrick and I am Chair of the
Pharmaceuticals Technical Activity Committee, part of the Process Industries Division within the IMechE. I am a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and a Fellow of the IMechE, starting my career in 1972 as an apprentice with ICI and since working in numerous engineering roles. I have a 1st Class Hons degree in Mechanical Eng and an MSc in Pharmaceutical Eng from Manchester University. I am also a visiting lecturer at Manchester University on the Pharmaceuticals Engineering MSc. I work with the Derbyshire Education Business Partnership as a Science and Engineering Ambassador (SEA) promoting engineering in schools. Until recently I was Packaging Engineering Manager responsible for all aspects of packaging equipment at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield Works, including specification, design, commissioning, validation, exploitation, new pack design, new technologies with some Global interaction, and latterly working on aspects of LEAN implementation.

The Pharmaceuticals TAC is part of the Process Industries Division and meets three times a year.

We have the following objectives: 

  • Raise awareness of this field within the professional engineering community 
  • Provide knowledge sharing 
  • Provide seminars and training opportunities 
  • Link with other related bodies such as IChemE and ISPE 
  • Encourage suppliers to meet cGMP solutions in a cost effective way

Committee members are typically involved in the pharmaceutical industry either in research, manufacturing, service suppliers, consultants or academics. Part of our role is to share knowledge and raise awareness of our industry sector and we organise seminars which we hope may be of interest to others in the industry.

We would appreciate any feedback on possible seminar topics if you have suggestions that you believe will be of sufficient interest to the members of the mechanical engineering community. It would be a good opportunity for any of you who would like to share knowledge with others in the industry and I would therefore encourage you to send in technical articles or articles of interest for inclusion in a future newsletter to process@imeche.org


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