Chi Chung

Blog written by Chi Chung, Principal Pharmacist: Research and Development

I registered some time ago as a fully qualified Hospital Pharmacist and found the daily grind as a Junior Pharmacist working in the NHS somewhat constricting. I did some moonlighting in my local community chemist and this allowed me the freedom to find my feet as a pharmacist offering advice and supplying medicines to patients.

After several years, this freedom to be a solo practitioner felt lacking. I needed something a bit more challenging. After all, I wasn’t really interested in the ‘business’ end of community pharmacy. So back to the NHS I trotted. I landed in a small district general hospital (DGH) in the suburbs and was happy to be a novice again, learning on the job on the wards. It was OK, for now. By chance there was a vacancy in the sterile production department and my Chief Pharmacist at the time asked me to step in as there was going to be a regional audit. Sure! I thought. This whet my appetite for a world of production services, making and supervising the manufacture of aseptic products, chemotherapy and alike. The audit went so badly that it pressurised me into never feeling so useless again! So I was hooked. Production was forever my bag, or so I thought.

I set about the next few years diving headfirst into production pharmacy. Making tailor-made chemotherapy doses for patients who were acutely or chronically ill with cancer. Providing parenteral nutrition to those after major surgery or GI insult. At the DGH level I was able to really research into all the background behind regulation for production and systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT). Then it was time to grow, again. I got a job in one of the London teaching hospitals as a cancer-production pharmacist. This was surely now my real vocation(?) Apparently not.

Once again I found myself being asked to step in for a gap in cancer clinical trials this time. Again, a chance audit from an external company whet my appetite for more research into this job. My thirst for background reading to all the diseases being studied and the hypotheses leading to the discovery of new drugs was fascinating. At last, I had really found my calling. A mixture of using my knowledge of production pharmacy, coupled with experience in anti-cancer therapy and constant reading and researching is now what I would call the perfect experience behind becoming a research pharmacist.

My days start with answering the numerous emails and queries from sponsors to assure them that my team are safeguarding their investigational medicines (IMPs) appropriately. I have a team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who look after portfolios of trials and assistants who complement them in admin work and stock control.

My background in community has also helped with knowledge of costs and patient referral pathways which play an important part in how trial patients are treated with IMPs and how to negotiate our services with sponsors A good, sound knowledge of simple biochemistry and molecular science doesn’t go amiss when reading the numerous protocols sent to us by sponsors. A well-rounded knowledge of how the NHS works and how medicines are procured within the NHS is relevant for risk assessing them for appropriate handling in production or dispensary. I have found I have a knack for project management and have a process-driven personality. All good traits to provide leadership in a clinical trials service.