Health Webinar: Future Health – the Chemical Engineer's role
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a significant transformation, with a strong focus on the use of technology to aid new drug discovery and enhance manufacturing performance, alongside novel processes and “precision” medicine. The speed of response to the pandemic has demonstrated the capability of the industry to respond to global challenges. It has also helped to shine a light on the criticality of access to medicines and global health inequities. Chemical Engineers have a key role to play in harnessing the new technologies and platforms to help drive further improvements in manufacturing, reduce costs and enable greater global health improvements.
Date: 14 September 2022
Time: 08:30 (BST)
Our Webinar Panel:
Peter Iles-Smith (Chair) - Snr. Prog. Dir. Security and Cloud Transformation, GSK
Peter has spent the last 40 years working in the pharmaceutical and other regulated industries, principally in the development of process automation and other advanced technologies. He works for GSK and leads the movement to cloud based systems - enabling flexible operations and advanced analytics among other technology innovations.
Sujeewa Sumanasena -Project Director, Premium International (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka
Sujeewa has over 28 years of Engineering and Project Management experence in diverse Chemical Enginnering fields in the UK, Europe, US and Asia. For the last 7 years Sujeewa has been heading the Projects Division of Premium International, setting up pharmaceutical plants in Sri Lanka from conceptual engineering to executing EPC contracts for the same. He specialises in identifying technology partners from around the world and enabling technology transfer to the local manufacturers to ensure modern technology is available for those manufacturers in Sri Lanka.
Keith Plumb - Director, Integral Pharma Service Ltd
Keith Plumb is a process, safety and equipment consultant with nearly 40 years experience in the pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. Keith has worked with manufacturing companies, design companies and consultancies. Keith's experience covers all stages of pharmaceutical manufacturer and some elements of development. He has been a member of Pharma SIG committee for more than 30 years.
Dr Badarulhisam Abdul Rahman - Chief Scientific Officer, Pharmaniaga Berhad, Malaysia
Dr. Badarulhisam is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Pharmaniaga Berhad, a public listed company in Malaysia Manufacturing, Logistic and Sales and Marketing activities of Pharmaceutical products. He was also responsible to spearhead sustainability program at Pharmaniaga. He received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, USA and MSc and Advanced Diploma from the University College of London (University of London), UK. His area of expertise is in the fields of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Dr. Badarulhisam developed his early career as a lecturer at the Department of Bioprocess Engineering, University Technology of Malaysia and he is still active academically. He has served as a Professor (adjunct) at Chemical Engineering Department, University Putra Malaysia and he is also a member for the Board of Academic Advisory, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and a few other universities.
Dr Karen Coopman - Reader in Biological Engineering, Loughborough University
With a background in pharmacology Karen has always had an interest in healthcare and her research interests now focus on the manufacturing of cell-based therapies and biopreservation. A Reader in Biological Engineering at Loughborough University, she has been involved with the UK’s bioprocessing community for over 10 years, having served on the Steering Groups of both the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club and BioProNet in the past. Currently she is the Director of the EPSRC/MRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine, an Executive Editor for Biotechnology Letters and is Chair of ESACT UK.
Anthony Margetts - Principal Consultant, Factorytalk, UK
Academic experience - Lecturer at Leeds University and Head of Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Dar es Salaam. Industry experience includes designing, commissioned and operating a major hazards plant, working on safety cases in the nuclear industry and more recently extensive experience in the Pharma industry in all aspects of manufacture including API and formulated product. I spent the last 12 years working in the Far East on Pharma projects in the Asean region.
Vicky Lange - Senior Scientist, Pfizer
Vicky is a Senior Scientist (Chemical Engineer) within the Flexible API Supply Technology (FAST) group at Pfizer in Sandwich, UK. At Pfizer, Vicky is working at the exciting interface between chemistry and chemical engineering - delivering on the design and development of scalable continuous processes to pharmaceutical drug candidates, as well as, providing engineering support for technology transfer to Pfizer’s manufacturing sites.
She joined Pfizer, after working with Baxter Healthcare as an Engineering Project Manager. Vicky obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Nottingham, where she specialised on the development of multiphase reaction and separation technologies using ionic liquids. Vicky then completed her postdoctoral research studies at UCL on intensified liquid-liquid extractions, where she was also appointed Teaching Fellow - Process Plant Design. In addition to her involvement in the Pharma SIG, Vicky is a representative for Pfizer at the IQ Consortium - Drug Substance Continuous Manufacturing Working Group.
Elizabeth Cheeseman - Process Engineer, Norbrook Laboratories Limited, UK
Process engineer familiar with stem cell processes and traditional pharmaceutical dose forms. Living and working in Northern Ireland, producing veterinary pharmaceuticals. Part-time farmer.