MSc aimed at pharmaceutical sector

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 12, 2006

An MSc course that aims to address the shortage of high-calibre technical staff within the pharmaceutical and medical device engineering sectors has been launched by Cranfield University.

An MSc course that aims to address the shortage of high-calibre technical staff within the pharmaceutical and medical device engineering sectors has been launched by Cranfield University.

This vocational course in Integrated Pharmaceutical and Medical Engineering has been developed to provide staff who are aware of the growing global business problems faced by these industry sectors and who can contribute in the discovery, creation and manufacture of cost-efficient, high-volume disposable products.

Leading pharmaceutical and medical device products manufacturer 3M Health Care has helped develop the MSc curriculum and will provide and support individual research projects for the 2006/07 academic year.

3M Health Care European Operations Manager Dave Walls said: "The pharmaceutical industry accounts for a quarter of the entire research expenditure by the UK manufacturing sector and therefore can offer a diverse range of global career opportunities".

The course curriculum, which comprises 10 one-week assessed modules, a group project and an individual project, has been developed in collaboration with global manufacturers.

Directed through its own course advisory group to ensure content is aligned to industry needs, modules include Applied Automation and Design, Enabling Technologies (used in the manufacture of small-scale physical devices and powder-based products) and Manufacturing Assessment and Improvement.

The course also provides an overview of the regulatory framework within which the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries must operate, with an appreciation of the science and technologies that are used in the pursuit of manufacturing methods.

Course Director Graham Fuller said: "Over the past 20 years, through our research and consultancy activities, we have had continuous contact with the industries involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical and medical devices".

"It is increasingly obvious that, to remain competitive in an aggressive global market where business pressures are increasing, these companies will need to change their approach to the discovery, design and manufacture of their products".

"Manufacture must become a seamless activity, and they will need to adopt the philosophies and techniques of the high-volume, low added-value manufacturers and to benchmark themselves against these".

"The key to such a change is the recruitment and provision of suitable staff".

"One of the primary aims of this new masters programme is to facilitate this".

Available on a full-time or part-time study basis, the MSc in Integrated Pharmaceutical and Medical Engineering will suit engineering, physics and science graduates keen to pursue careers within the pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing sectors, or graduates working in industry who wish to extend their qualifications.