The evolving profile, role and relevance of the medical director in a pharmaceutical company

Over the last years, operations in Pharmaceutical Companies have become more complex, trying to adapt to new demands of the market environment. Overall, the observed change of paradigm requires adapting, mainly by the setting of new priorities, diversification of investments, cost containment strategies, exploring new markets and developping new sets of skills. In this context, new functions have been created, the relevance of some has diminished, and the importance of others has arisen. Amongst these, the medical structure within a Pharmaceutical Company, increased to meet demands, with companies adopting different models to respond to these needs, and becoming a pillar to the business. Assuming the leading role within a medical department, the medical director function often lies in the shadow. It is a key function within Pharma Industry, either on a country or on a Global basis. It has evolved and changed in the past years to meet the constant demands of a changing environment. The Medical Director is a highly skilled and differeniated professional who provides medical and scientific governance within a Pharmaceutical company, since early stages of drug development and up to loss of exclusivity, not only but also by leading a team of other physicians, pharmacists or life scientists whose functions comprise specificities that the medical director needs to understand, provide input to, oversee and lead. As the organization of Pharmaceutical Companies tends to be different, in accordance to values, culture, markets and strategies, the scope of activities of a Medical Director can be broader or may be limited, depending on size of the organization and governance model, but they must fulfil a large set of requirements in order to leverage impact on internal and internal customers. Key technical competencies for medical directors such as an MD degree, a strong clinical foundation, knowledge of drug development, project and team management experience and written and verbal skills are relatively easy to define, but underlying behavioural competencies are more difficult to ascertain, and these are more often the true predictors of success in the role. Beyond seamless proficiency in technical skills, at this level interpersonal skills become far more important, as they are the driver and the distinctive factor between a good and an excelent medical director. And this has impact in the business and in the people doing it.

Portuguese georesources suitability for medical hydrology applications

In Portugal, there is an old tradition in using clayey materials for therapeutic purposes. They are applied in pelotherapy, at several beaches of the Atlantic coast in the form of clay-sea water mixtures (peloids) to treat skin and rheumatic diseases. During many generations, peloids have been applied without scienti c studies that prove their therapeutic validity. In the last decade, the Portuguese scienti c community has become increasingly more interested in assessing the properties that make clayey materials suitable for therapeutic purposes. The abundance of clayey formations and the established practices of medical hydrology in our country turned this interest into a new perspective of application. The studied materials include di erent clays (in age and origin) mainly collected from well-known Mesozoic-Cenozoic formations, in some cases outcropping at beaches where empirical applications occur. This thesis focus in the study of silt-clay fraction (< 63 m).To determine their suitability for therapy, compositional, physicochemical, technological, thermal and rheological properties were assessed. Conventional techniques (XRD, XRF and Sedigraph) were used to assess compositional features of silt-clay fraction. Electron microscopy (SEM, VPSEM, HREM) was used to study the micromorphology and composition of clay fraction (< 2 m). Physicochemical properties (cation exchange and speci c surface) were assessed using the Ammonium Acetate and BET methods. Technological properties (plasticity and abrasivity indices) were assessed using the Atterberg limits and Einlehner abrasion tests. Thermal properties (speci c heat and cooling kinetics) were estimated by DSC analysis and cooling tests. Pharmacotechnical tests (compressibility index, sediment volume and Brook eld viscosity) were used to assess the powder owability as well as the physical stability and viscosity of clay-water dispersions. We selected as suitable Portuguese clays for health applications the samples A-Pe, A-Be2, A-Sd, J-Fr , M-To, C-Lu1, C-Lu2, Pl-Ba, M-Ga and J-Ab because they represent safe materials, with an adequate composition, good technological, physicochemical and thermal properties for application, also presenting an adequate rheology when dispersed in water. Their most relevant characteristics are the high clay minerals content, abundant smectite, illite and kaolinite, and safe hazardous concentrations. They also showed moderate capacity to exchange Ca 2+, high plasticity, low abrasivity, high speci c heat and slow cooling kinetics. They evidenced fair powder owability and good potential to formulate viscous dispersions when stabilized. Because the majority of the assessed characteristics are in accordance with those presented by clays applied in European spas for pelotherapy, we considered this group of clays also suitable for medical hydrology treatments in Portuguese spas.