The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7201 p802-803
8 June 2002

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Letters to the Editor

CPD

What about pharmacists in regulatory affairs?

From Mrs V. L. Skeffington, MRPharmS, and Mr F. G. Farrell, FRPharmS

We read with great interest the article by John Jolley on continuing professional development issues for industrial pharmacists (PJ, 18 May, p701).

We are pharmacists and consultants to the pharmaceutical industry in the field of regulatory affairs and are keen to see the interests of industrial pharmacists maintained and considered within the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Over the years industrial pharmacists have provided, and continue to provide, an extra dimension to the status of the profession, yet the Society tends to forget about them. This is exemplified by the pages of the issue of 25 May, devoted to CPD and postgraduate education, in which the industrial pharmacist does not get a mention.

We, therefore, fully support Mr Jolley's comments made in connection with CPD for industrial pharmacists. As he notes, an industrial pharmacist is likely to belong to more than one professional organisation. In our case we belong to the British Institute of Regulatory Affairs (BIRA). BIRA is willing to work with the Society to ensure that pharmacists specialising in regulatory affairs are covered by any future CPD schemes. The MSc degree and postgraduate diploma course in regulatory affairs run by BIRA and validated by the University of Wales is an example of the type of training on offer which could easily allow an industrial pharmacist employed in this field to keep up to date without, as Mr Jolley notes, creating "an unworkable system for the individual". We look forward to such courses being recognised by the Society as being appropriate for the ongoing development of industrial pharmacists.

Veronica Skeffington
Geoffrey Farrell
Malmesbury, Wiltshire

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