News

Vicki Pike to Join EPiC Auditors in November

Vicki Pike Will Join The EPiC Management Team as Operations Manager & Senior Consultant

EPiC Auditors is delighted to announce that Vicki Pike will be joining us on the 11th November to take up the role of EPiC Auditors Operations Manager and Senior Consultant. 

EPiC Auditors is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year having been established in 2014 by Liz Allanson and Darren Jones (both ex MHRA) to fulfil the increasing need for former MHRA Inspectors to conduct mock regulatory inspections and to provide consultancy advice from the Regulatory perspective. Since then, the company has developed significantly, and Vicki has been appointed to further strengthen the EPiC management team and our team of consultants.

Vicki joins us with over 25 years experience of working in the pharmaceutical industry, including 7 years working as a GMDP Inspector for the MHRA where she was accredited to perform a wide range of inspections of different dosage forms and processes including: steriles, non-steriles, specials (unlicensed medicines), medical gases, IMPs, herbals, importation and wholesale dealing.

Prior to joining the MHRA, Vicki worked for AstraZeneca at their UK manufacturing site, predominately in Quality roles, and became eligible as a QP in 2006. After leaving MHRA Vicki joined GlaxoSmithKline, where she worked as a corporate auditor for 8 years, and latterly led a remediation project at a European manufacturing site.

Vicki is a Pharmacist by training and puts patient impact at the forefront of her decision making. Vicki is passionate about sharing her knowledge, especially when coaching and training others.

We are really excited about Vicki joining the team and acknowledge the range of skills and experience she brings which will help us to develop further and extends our capabilities to meet the needs of all our clients.

If you need our help and support from a former MHRA Inspector then please contact us on +44 (0)1244 980544 or e-mail us at enquiries@epic-auditors.com

🎉REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN 🎉

EPiC Virtual Symposium 2024


EPiC proudly presents our full-day virtual symposium event featuring an esteemed lineup of former MHRA Inspector speakers.

📅Join us on Thursday, 28th November 2024, for our event;

FROM COMPLAINT TO COMPLIANT: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO OVERCOME CURRENT GMDP CHALLENGES. 💊💊

We will explore the latest regulatory updates and guidance and provide practical guidance to conquer compliance challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector.

Our objective is to combine valuable insights using real-world examples and experiences from across our consortium of expert pharmaceutical consultants to provide the knowledge and offer practical solutions to overcome current GMDP compliance challenges.

For more information and to buy your ticket click on the link below;

EPiC Auditors Virtual Symposium 2024: From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges
EPiC Auditors Virtual Symposium 2024: From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges

EPiC Auditors Are Hiring!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN AN EPiC TEAM?💫

EPiC Auditors is looking to strengthen our Management Team and grow our dynamic team of GXP Consultants.

EPiC Auditors is one of the leading pharmaceutical consultancies in the UK. It provides expert GXP Auditing, mock Inspection, consultancy, and bespoke training services to the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, as well as to pharmaceutical manufacturing and clinical trial services in hospitals.

As demand for our services continues to grow, we are looking to recruit an Operations Manager and also a GMDP Senior Consultant.

EPiC is passionate about ensuring a healthy work-life balance and maintaining an enjoyable work environment, achieved through flexible working patterns. Both posts are home based but do require travel throughout the UK and overseas.

This is a great opportunity to join a team of experts many of whom are former MHRA inspectors. Our consultants bring their wealth of experience to EPiC, ensuring that our clients receive world class guidance and solutions.

If you meet the role requirements and want to be part of a team who have first-hand knowledge of regulatory inspections and compliance and are passionate about making a difference in the pharmaceutical industry, we encourage you to apply!

The closing date for applications for both posts is 14th September 2024

EPiC Top Tips- Implementing Effective Quality Risk Management

5 Top Tips for Implementing Effective Quality Risk Management

Article By Michelle Yeomans, Operations Manager for EPiC Auditors

Quality risk management (QRM) is an integral part of GMDP that strives to protect patients by applying a scientific and practical approach to decision-making for different aspects of pharmaceutical quality throughout the product lifecycle.

The ICH Q9 QRM Guideline is referenced in Chapter 1 of EU GMP and reproduced in Part III of the guide and is intended to provide guidance on the principles, and examples of tools for QRM that can be applied to different aspects of pharmaceutical quality.

Following the Revision 1 update of ICH Q9 which became effective in July 2023, EPiC have been providing bespoke training and supporting clients as they assess and update their own PQS procedures in line with the changes to make QRM activities more effective and value adding.

ICHQ9(R1) provides multiple examples of potential applications of QRM, and If you have not done so already, we recommend you review the training materials on the ICH Q9 webpage https://www.ich.org/page/quality-guidelines and follow our top tips for effective QRM:

  1. QRM application – QRM can be applied anywhere there is potential risk across the business and across a product’s lifecycle. In applying QRM, it is important to ensure that patient safety and product quality considerations remain front and centre, as patients are putting trust in the decisions you make. QRM cannot be used to justify bad practice and non-compliance with GMP requirements.
  2. Risk Review – Be proactive and develop mechanisms to prompt reviews of existing risk profiles and control measures as your knowledge and experience increases. For example, set aside time at Quality Management Review meetings to review risk registers, review risk assessments associated with specific manufacturing processes, perform a review of engineering activities to confirm that planned preventative maintenance is on track and equipment is performing as expected, periodically review supplier performance and changes to confirm existing risk ratings are appropriate.
  3. Adopt a QA mindset – Design your processes to deliver a quality output rather than relying on problems/defects being detected at the end of the process. Provide training in the tools and techniques to the people involved in QRM activities and consider using experienced facilitators for more formal QRM processes.
  4. Think about the people involved – subjectivity can directly impact the effectiveness of risk management activities and the decisions made, so it is important to be able to recognise and control subjectivity, bias, assumptions, and mental shortcuts. This can be achieved by ensuring that risk questions are clearly defined, appropriate QRM tools are applied, and by being objective and evidenced based when assessing data and proposed control measures.
  5. Apply critical thinking – Critical thinking requires us to actively engage our brain to be able to work out complex problems. In working through the risk assessment, risk control and risk review phases of QRM, think clearly and rationally to understand the logical connection between ideas. Use the Q9 QRM toolkit to provide a systematic approach to identify, analyse, and solve problems rather than using intuition or instinct, but be prepared to question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting at face value e.g. is the tool fit for purpose, does the output seem right?

Effective and proactive QRM can enable better, more informed, and timely decisions throughout the product lifecycle, and we hope that our top tips will provide you with some useful ideas on how to further enhance your QRM processes.  

Get in touch if you want to know more about our bespoke QRM and critical thinking training.

Telephone: +44 (0)1244 980544 or email us at enquiries@epic-auditors.com

SAVE THE DATE: EPiC’s Virtual Symposium 2024 

EPiC Auditors Virtual Symposium 2024: From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges

EPiC Auditors Virtual Compliance Symposium: From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges
EPiC Auditors Virtual Symposium 2024: From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges

Join us for EPiC’s fourth annual virtual symposium on Thursday, 28th November 2024, titled “From Complaint to Compliant: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Current GMDP Challenges.”

Building on the success of our past symposia, this event promises a day packed with enlightening presentations by a distinguished panel of former MHRA Inspectors. We’ll explore the latest updates and guidance and provide practical guidance to conquer compliance challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector.  Further details can be found here; https://academy.epic-auditors.com/

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