Meet the maker: EPM talks to Richard Limb

In the third episode of our series, we talk to Richard Limb who is the new head of Quality Assurance at one of the UK’s independent suppliers of both Specials and clinical trial medicines to healthcare professionals, Nova Laboratories.

1. Could you briefly describe yourself?

I am married with two young daughters and two elder sons, the eldest is just about to go to University. Between my family and work, I seem to have less and less time for anything else! When I do get any spare time, I like to be outdoors and enjoy running in the local countryside. I have always been very active and played lots of sport, so that’s my ‘go to’ thing for stress relief and some thinking time while my body takes the strain. On the family side, we enjoy days out, travelling and family holidays which are often the best time to catch up and really focus on spending some quality time together.

2. Please describe your average day in five words.

Diverse, challenging, busy, rewarding, satisfying.

3. At what point did you decide to be involved in the pharma market?

It may sound a cliché but it seemed to choose me. I fell into it purely by accident although I had always loved the sciences and study all three major branches. I started off in pure research and then progressively moved through R&D to manufacturing support, QC and then QA. It’s been a varied journey but I feel lucky to have seen most elements of the process from early phase research to commercialisation and licensed supply. And I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed all of the areas I’ve worked in, which is something I know I’m fortunate to be able to say.

4. What has been your biggest achievement?

Building, qualifying and licensing a new site, whilst implementing a new QMS, bespoke electronic manufacturing environment and recruiting and training all the staff. An opportunity you don’t often get.

5. What would you say is your worst trait?

As any of my colleagues will tell you, I do have a tendency to be rather verbose and why say in ten words what you can say in a hundred! I am conscious of this though and try to rein it in.

6. What do you love about your job?

Pretty much everything I think. What we do at Nova is fairly unique and the breadth of the operation is also unusual. Our portfolio is also vast with licensed and unlicensed pharmaceuticals, clinical trial manufacture, live virus and biologics, medical devices and specialised, niche technology such as aseptic spray drying and Hydris/Vitris.

This all gives me great scope to learn and makes every day a new challenge.

7. If anything, what would you change about your job?

I don’t think there’s anything significant I would change. There’s a great senior leadership team and it’s a very interesting job. Maybe a little more thinking time and scope to plan strategically wouldn’t go amiss.

8. If you weren’t in the pharma industry what job would you like to do?

I love the outdoors and woodland, and I’ve completely landscaped three gardens including all the fencing, paving, planting etc. So, I think something related to garden design and landscaping or Forestry would be a perfect way to spend my time.

9. What challenges do you foresee being important over the next 10 years?

Scale, advancing technologies and therapies and a sea change in the industry towards tailored therapies. We have recently seen in the news that oncology should be more targeted and individualised, dependent upon the patient’s genetic makeup, and this will increasingly become the case. Organisations completely focused on huge scale and mass markets may find this a challenge if they are not able to diversify and work at smaller scale on some key projects to meet demands.

10. In your opinion, what will offer the biggest opportunities in the future?

Diversity and an ability to adapt and change. With the advent of Advanced Therapeutic Medical Products, 3D printing, viral and gene therapies, the industry needs to able to cope not only technically but also adapt to much smaller scale manufacture that is tailored to more specific patient populations and targeted therapies. This means greater diversity on a smaller scale and large-scale manufacture and generics will have less influence on the market. There will still be the odd blockbuster, but flexibility and offering bespoke solutions will be more prized as we move further into the next decade. That’s where Nova can certainly come to the fore and I think that presents an exciting opportunity for us.