Medical company Panacea Pharma Projects (PPP) has recruited two new staff and moved to new premises to accommodate the company’s continued expansion. The pharmacovigilance firm has moved from its offices at Ballastrang Farm, Santon, to its new headquarters at Peterson House, Middle River, Douglas. PPP now employs 11 staff in the Isle of Man and the company is expecting this to increase to 15 by the end of 2011. The latest recruits are Island residents Sam Tipper and Lauren Hall. Sam joined PPP as an administrator after completing his A levels at Ballakermeen High School. Lauren graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in July 2010, obtaining a degree in Pharmaceutical Science and Biological Chemistry. She is now working as a pharmacovigilance assistant at PPP. Matthew McSevney, PPP General Manager, welcomed Sam and Lauren to PPP and said that the move to new premises was necessary due to the exceptional growth and demand for the company’s services. He said: “We required larger offices to accommodate our continued expansion in the number of technical staff we employ. The new offices will give us the space to grow in the future. We have also invested in our IT infrastructure to ensure we have a system to expand with us as we grow. The new system - which has been developed with our local IT provider ITEX - meets the requirements of our growth strategy and protects our IT infrastructure in the years ahead.” PPP currently employs two staff off-Island and is now inviting applications for the post of QPPV (Qualified person in Pharmacovigilance). Matthew said this post represented a ‘key step in our growth strategy to ensure we have a breadth of technical expertise to provide our partners across Europe’. The successful applicant for the QPPV vacancy will be based in the UK and accountable for the performance and maintenance of PPP’s pharmacovigilance system and responsible for the highest level of compliance under national and EU legislation. PPP is a specialist in pharmacovigilance and works as a consultancy for pharmaceutical companies to detect and assess any safety concerns which may relate to prescription drugs. Its work involves monitoring potential long term and short term side effects of medicines which it does by gathering data from a wide range of sources across the world. This data is then used to highlight any concerns about the safety of particular drugs or medicines and manufacturers can then analyse data to decide whether recalls of drugs are necessary. - ENDS -