Drug Safety Associate

SUMMARY: 

Responsible for executing US Adverse Event and Pharmacovigilance activities as required by FDA Regulations. Provide support and oversight in drug safety related activities including Product Quality Complaints and Medical Information activities. 

Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. is a globally integrated generic pharmaceutical company with a focus on providing high service, quality, and affordable products. Our US leadership, which has over 60 years of US generic market experience, understands the customer’s business which allows Zydus the ability to provide unique models to help drive their customer’s success. Our parent company, Zydus Cadila, has a large presence in global markets, including relationships with many top tier international pharmaceutical companies. Based on a manufacturing and development history that spans over 50 years, it is the 4th largest pharmaceutical company in India. 

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Serve as second line of contact for the incoming calls to medical affairs department.

• Intake new and follow up spontaneous Adverse Events and record the discussion in relevant AE worksheet

• Writing case narratives for serious/non-serious, study reports and quality/ product complaint reports prior to sign off by medical information manager or Global Pharmacovigilance Team (GPV)

• Evaluate cases for seriousness and expectedness criteria.

• Enter in AE cases in safety database in timely manner for further processing by MIS and Pharmacovigilance Group.

• Maintain Adverse event and safety database log and coordinate distribution of safety data as needed.

• Maintain verification of reconciliation and email correspondence in Drug Safety shared drive

• Distribute adverse event reports to plant QA/GPV/ partner companies in accordance with Safety Data Exchange Agreements (SDEAs)

• Obtain follow-up information via mail or telephone from healthcare professionals and consumers as per the relevant SOP or as per the ongoing medical conditions.

• Monitor status of follow-up letters to ensure follow-up information is requested in the required timeframes. 

• Follow up with reporter/ patient/ HCP at defined interval either by phone or email.

• Maintain US Adverse Event and safety database and coordinate distribution of safety data.

• Interact with data intake and entry group to ensure complete quality and output and provide guidance on follow up as needed.

• Handling Product Complaints related to Adverse Events.

• Performing reconciliation with business partners and vendors for AE reports exchanges 

• Responsible for taking appropriate decisions by applying knowledge of FDA and ICH GCP and GVP standard regulations to write overall case summary.

• Assist with Pharmacovigilance reconciliation of databases and listings (post marketing and clinical trial sources) as required.

• Perform Quality Review on safety database for other Drug Safety Associate’s cases.

• Assist with additional drug safety activities as required.

• Perform retrospective equality review and document findings, and contribute to metric compilation 

• Support the identification of corrections and creation of updates in safety database following medical review.

• Implement and execute QC on key fields for serious cases.

• Offer during reviews and audits of safety data and database.

• Perform Individual Case Safety Report (ICSR) processing activities within the safety database and do quality checks on the assigned ICSR.

• Support for Regulatory Inspections.

• Ability to distinguish and analyze the ratio of risk and benefits of the drug that is marketed.

• Database searches, as necessary.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in life sciences, pharmacy, nursing (RN, RPh) or combination of Health-Related Degree and clinical experience in a medical setting.

• Two years of experience in pharmaceutical drug safety/pharmacovigilance including experience in triaging of cases, coding of terms using MedDRA, data entry and narrative writing.

TRAVEL: 

• As and when required.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: 

This is an office-based position, located in our office in Pennington, NJ. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an individual to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the individual is:

• Frequently required to sit and/or stand, walk, talk, and hear.

• Ability to sit at a computer for an extended period of time.

• Vision ability requirements include clarity of visions at 20 inches or less due to computer work.

• Moderate noise (i.e., background noise due to computers, phone, printers, and light hallway traffic).

• Constantly required to use hands and fingers to operate office machines and equipment.

• Frequently required to reach with hands and arms. Occasionally required to stoop, kneel, and crouch.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that an individual encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.