Member opportunity: learn more about pharmaceutical engineering

The Making Pharmaceuticals exhibition and conference (25-26 April) is free to attend and features talks by industry experts from the Institution.

Members of the Pharmaceutical Engineering Committee, including its Chair, Karen Stevenson DipComp BSc AMIMechE, have been presenting at the annual conference for the last few years.

Karen, an international compliance specialist for GlaxoSmithKline said: “For many people, pharma means labs, scientists and clinical trials and very few would say it’s all about manufacturing and engineering. We are passionate about communicating the fact that pharmaceutical engineering impacts people directly – their life chances, quality of life, health, reception of medicines and production of life-changing equipment.”

The committee will deliver nine presentations at the 2017 conference under the Institution’s banner. The IMechE is the only professional engineering institution supporting the event.

Karen said: “Our seminars are linked by the themes of manufacturing excellence and productivity in a changing world, data quality and the regulatory framework. One of the hot topics at the event is also likely to be the effect of Brexit on regulation and compliance.

“As well as committee members, we have made the most of our contacts to ensure our seminars deliver the most relevant content.”

The Pharmaceutical Engineering Committee currently sits within the Process Industry division. Its work reaches across many other sectors, including health themes and biomedical engineering.

Chris Hurst CEng FIMechE, co-Vice Chair of the committee, says pharmaceuticals is often overlooked as one of the main UK engineering sectors:

“Many companies within automotive and aerospace are household names, but in 2015 GlaxoSmithKline had a higher turnover than the best-known UK-based car and aerospace manufacturers, which tend to be more newsworthy. Pharmaceuticals is a leading innovative industry with impacts in many other sectors, from manufacturing to process to biomedical engineering.”

Karen said the committee aims to promote mechanical engineering within the pharmaceuticals industry. It welcomes new members and is looking to expand its network and skillset with people who are interested in pharmaceuticals, from any professional background.

She said: “Joining a committee is great career building experience. We currently have a mix of wonderfully experienced engineering consultants and graduate engineers; it’s a great forum for knowledge sharing as well as trying out soft skills, such as presentations, in a safe, friendly environment.”

Making Pharmaceuticals will allow attendees to see new processes and equipment, network with peers across the industry and hear from engineers in a range of process, manufacturing, systems and regulation areas.

The exhibition and conference also features an evening dinner with guest speaker Helen Arney at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, 25-26 April 2017.

Find out more about the Pharmaceutical Engineering Committee.