A Personal Vision of the Future of Safety

Dr. Val Simmons, MB BS, FFPM
European Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance, Executive, Global Patient Safety, Eli Lilly and Company Limited

Dr. Val Simmons is currently the European Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance (QPPV) in the Global Patient Safety division of Eli Lilly & Company Limited.

Val is a registered physician from the University of London and specialised in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. She joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1987 as a Medical Advisor for Janssen Pharmaceuticals Limited and, since 1991, has subsequently pursued a career in drug safety through senior management positions in Glaxo and Eli Lilly.

In addition to her QPPV role within Lilly, Val’s intense passion for the field of pharmacovigilance and patient safety is reflected in her active involvement in various external committees and academic bodies including the EFPIA Pharmacovigilance Working Group, University of Cardiff Diploma Course for Pharmaceutical Physicians, ICH as the EFPIA Topic Leader for ICH E2D and, more recently, the CIOMS VII Expert Working Group. Her involvement with DIA spans many years since the early 1990`s when she was first invited to present at a DIA European training programme on improving safety standards in clinical studies…a petrifying experience at the time ! Since then Val managed to overcome her nerves ( at least partially!) and went on to become an active participant in multiple DIA initiatives, including membership of the former DIA Steering Committee for Europe, a member of the programme committee for multiple DIA Annual Euromeetings and a speaker/ tutorial trainer in many DIA meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. She was also the co- chair of the DIA CSP Core Committee for a number of years until June 2007 and has spearheaded the QPPV Forum in Europe since it became clear that this role was of critical importance.

Her key interests lie in training and developing future talent in the field of drug safety, as well as the introduction of quality and standards of excellence in pharmacovigilance / risk management planning; balancing this with a healthy life outside the work environment is the icing on the cake but an often unachievable objective!!!

 

Industry Trends: Outsourcing and Offshoring

Dr. Jonathan Lange
Partner, Global Lead, Accenture Clinical and Regulatory Services - Accenture

Jonathan Lange is a Partner in the Health & Life Sciences Practice of Accenture. His primary focus is Pharmaceutical R&D, where he specializes in leading strategic business transformation change programs for pharmaceutical companies seeking to improve their business performance. His areas of expertise range from defining strategies to improve R&D productivity and operations, to the development of business capabilities and outsourced solutions/services enabled to achieve desired business results. Mr. Lange has 19 years of experience working in most of the core process areas across the pharmaceutical value-chain. He received a B.S. degree in Applied Math - Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon and also completed a M.S. degree in Computer Science, from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Lange has spent the last 2-3 years directing Accenture’s Clinical Services Outsourcing Business globally. In this role, he is leading the development and growth of the relevant BPO offerings which support the clinical execution process for our clients, such as Clinical Data Management.