ISPE Singapore Affiliate Past Events

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Operating Quality Water and Steam Systems

On 25–26 April the ISPE Singapore Affiliate held a two-day seminar on Operating Quality Water and Steam Systems at the Carlton Hotel. The course presented and discussed current best practices in the process of design, procurement and validation of compendial water and pure steam systems from the perspective of a user; as well as insights into application of a risk-based approach to validation and monitoring of systems in-use. It provided valuable information and examples of the emergence and use of PAT and rapid microbiological monitoring for these systems as well as covering rouging and cleaning issues.

Led by Nick Haycocks from Amgen and Saravanan Jeyakumar from PM Group, this course was presented to numerous audiences and as a result has been frequently refined to take into account feedback and experiences. The Seminar was well received by its participants who enjoyed a site visit to MSD to view their Water Tablet and networking drinks in the bar on the final day. ISPE Singapore Affiliate would like to thank Nick and Saravanan for making this seminar such a success.

For pictures of the event, please click here ( 629 KB).

ISPE Singapore Quiz Night

The Singapore Affiliate held the annual ISPE Quiz Night on 19 April at Harry’s Bar in Chijmes. It was a fantastic night with a record number of 73 participants attending the event!

12 teams competed against each other in a ‘pharma’ style quiz on general knowledge put together by experts in the field. The experts include the ISPE Singapore Affiliate EXCO members and local quizmaster Tom Browning, who returned from last year to host the night again. Guests enjoyed free beverages all night, and had a chance to mingle and enjoy a light buffet during the break.

The team from No Deviation, “CCR-Cardiocerebral Resuscitation” drove correct answers home round after round and won the first prize of $250. Coming in second was last year’s winning team from Synertec named “It’s my freakin birthday we deserve to win” who took home $100. The team “All Sorts” collected the third prize of $50. This year the Affiliate awarded a “Wooden Spoon” prize; this was proudly won by the team from CAI – “Powder Monkeys”.

ISPE Singapore Affiliate would like to congratulate the winning teams and thank everyone who showed great support to the Quiz Night.   
 

To find out more on the first prize winner, please click here ( 67 KB)

ISPE Annual General Meeting Report 2013

The Annual General Meeting for the Singapore Affiliate of ISPE was held on 23 January 2013 at the Function Hall in the beautiful Singapore Botanical Gardens. The meeting was well attended by both members and non-members from the industry. The President of ISPE Singapore Affiliate Gearoid Cronin opened the meeting with a warm welcome. Belinda Braggs, the Honorary Treasurer presented the financials and reports were made on Membership, Student Membership, COPs and Events and Education.  

A summary of the Annual Conference for 2012 was given and the plan for the 2013 Conference was presented to the audience. In the President’s Report Gearoid talked about ISPE, what it stands for and the Affiliate’s highlights for 2012. Moving forward in 2013 the Affiliate will focus on a few key areas which are the Young Professionals, Sterile Training, and Membership whilst ensuring a successful conference for 2013.

The meeting was concluded with the Election of Office Bearers and Executive Committee members. Please Click Here for the full Executive Committee listing for 2013.

Following the meeting the Affiliate hosted a lovely buffet dinner set in lush garden surrounds. The Affiliate would like to thank all members and non-members for attending and is looking forward to welcoming all members and non-members at the upcoming events throughout 2013!
 

GMP Cleaning Seminar

On 29 November a presentation on GMP Cleaning – the practical aspects was held at the Jurong Country Club.  For Biotech and Pharmaceutical drug producers, cleaning is an essential element to ensure product safety. Inadequate cleaning has been the root cause behind many warnings and a few plant shut downs. As more firms realize that automating cleaning is not really an issue of labor cost vs. capital cost but more an opportunity to improve both efficiency and quality assure while reducing risks, the trend is picking up in Asia.  Presented by two experts in the field from Getinge, Michel de Comarmond spoke about Cleaning Methods and the implications for plants and operations and Lorenz Egli discussed the practical use of detergents.  The event was a huge success with healthy discussion at question time.  ISPE would like to thank Getinge and all attendees for making this event a huge success

Science and Risk-based C & Q: Applying the ISPE Good Practice Guide: Applied Risk Management for Commissioning and Qualification Training

The Singapore Affiliate recently conducted Science and Risk-based C & Q: Applying the ISPE Good Practice Guide: Applied Risk Management for Commissioning and Qualification training at Swissotel Merchant Court Clarke Quay November 5th and 6th.  Through interactive workshops, this course explained and applied the science and risk-based approach to verification of systems, equipment and facilities in accordance with the ICH documents Q8, Q9, and Q10 and ASTM E-2500. Topics covered include the principles and activities that constitute an efficient and acceptable approach to demonstrating facility and equipment fitness for use as required by major global regulatory authorities; improving the ability to meet documented process requirements; controlling risks within the manufacturing process; producing high quality products and consistent operation to meet product user requirements

The training was attended by over 20 individuals including engineers and Q&A Specialists.  The training was lead by Mr Bob Adamson, a Chartered Chemist and Chartered Chemical Engineer.  He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry including positions with Foster Wheeler, Beecham, Glaxo and currently as a consultant with RBQ Services Limited.  An active member of ISPE, he has written and presented a number of papers and contributed to a number of books.  He has been involved with ISPE’s commissioning and qualification initiative since its conception.
Attendees enjoyed a daily buffet lunch, and to give attendees a chance to unwind and socialise after the first day of training, refreshments were served in the bar.

The Singapore Affiliate would like to thank everyone who helped make the event a success, including Bob Adamson, the attendees and the Swissotel Merchant Court
 

AWE Series Workshops 2012
Workshop 2 - Water

On 1 September the second in a series of 4 events on ACMV, water and Energy was held to a packed audience at NTU Alumni Clubhouse.  The focus of the seminar was to present the philosophy, reasons and constraints behind the changes/modifications that help pharmaceutical plants to save costs.  The Affiliate was thrilled to have 4 guest speakers who presented on the following: Ms Christina Chen, Commissioning and Qualification Engineer, CAI (Introduction to Water) Ms Amelia Lim, Engineer Water Supply Network (PUB) (Water Supply System) Mr Dave Forte, Asia Pacific Market Development Manager, Spirax Sarco (Steam – Energy Optimization) and Pierre Winnepenninckx, Managing Director of No deviation Pte Ltd (Why Design and Commissioning parameter matter.) The event was well received and we thank all attendees and look forward to Workshop 3 in the series.

Autoclave Sterilization Seminar

On 2 August 2012 the Singapore Affiliate were pleased to conduct a seminar on ‘Autoclave Sterilization’.  The 2 hour seminar, held at The Chevrons, was lead by Mr Simone Riva, Biomedical Engineer, Qualitech S.r.l. Property with over 12 years experience working in commissioning and qualification and attended by approximately 70 ISPE members and guests.  Attendees had the opportunity to meet and mingle during a mid seminar refreshment break.  The main purpose of the seminar was to provide attendees with a basic understanding of sterilization and the different means to achieve it.  The Singapore Affiliate would like to thank Mr Riva and all those who attended and supported the event.

AWE Series Workshops 2012
Workshop 1 ACMV

On 7 July the first in a series of 4 events on ACMV, water and Energy was held to a packed audience at NTU Alumni Clubhouse.  The focus of the seminar was to present the philosophy, reasons and constraints behind the changes/modifications that help pharmaceutical plants to save costs.  The Affiliate was thrilled to have 4 guest speakers who  presented on the following: Mr Atul Mathur an experienced HVAC Engineer ( Introduction to ACMV) Mr Jogesh Bhole, Senior Utilities, Facilities & SS Engineer, MSD International GMBH (Case study – AHU Optimization by changing supply room temperature) Mr Lawrence Smiddy, Senior Project Manager, PM Group (Case study - Clean room HVAC – Decision) and Gearoid Cronin, Commissioning and Qualification Manager, CAI (Case study – Commissioning as an essential tool for optimizing energy performance.  The event was well received and we thank all attendees and look forward to Workshop 2 in the series.

Article Quiz Night 2012

The Singapore Affiliate held the annual ISPE Quiz Night on Friday the 18th May in a private room at the charming Penny Black pub in Boat Quay.  It was yet another great night, and is proving to be one of the Affiliate’s most popular (and fiercely contested!) calendar events.

10 teams competed against each other in a general knowledge and ‘pharma’ style quiz put together by experts in the field from the ISPE Singapore Affiliate EXCO members and local quizmaster Tom Browning who returned from last year to once again host the night.  Guests enjoyed free beverages all night, and had a chance to mingle and enjoy a light buffet during the half-time break.

The team from Synertec drove correct answers home round after round to win the first prize of $250, it was a close call between 2nd and 3rd place with a tie breaker round confirming the places.  The Traque team collected the second prize of $100, with the team from MW Group taking third place prize of $50.  This year the Affiliate awarded a “Wooden Spoon” prize, this was proudly won by our team of students.  Thank you to everyone who supported the Quiz Night and congratulations to the winning teams.

We look forward to another successful Quiz Night next year.

ISPE Singapore Student Poster Competition 2012

The annual ISPE Student Poster Competition 2012 took place this year at the ISPE Singapore Conference on 28 May at the Suntec Convention Centre.  Fifteen entrants exhibited their poster at the conference, and presented it for assessment to the distinguished judging panel:  Assistant Professor Yap Chun Wei, Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Dr Gary Khoo, Technical Services Manager, Baxter BioScience and Mike Chrusciel, General Manager, Singapore Manufacturing, Alcon Laboratories INC.  Students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore entered their posters into the competition, which were required to be of interest to the pharmaceutical biotech or medical device industries and related to research and development, facilities or business operations.

It was a tense wait for students as they took turns to bring their poster to the judging panel for a short presentation/Q&A session.   The judges were impressed by the quality of the competition, and praised the technical quality of all the posters and the students’ presentation skills.   After an intense deliberation by the panel, winners were determined and awarded their prizes by Gearoid Cronin, President of ISPE Singapore Affiliate in front of their fellow students and Conference delegates.  We are pleased to announce that Gayathry Morvil, from NUS High School of Math and Science, was awarded first place prize of an all expenses paid trip to the ISPE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, for her highly praised poster - A novel drug delivery system based on wheat protein.  We congratulate Ms Morvil on this outstanding achievement and wish her all the best as she goes on to compete in the International Student Poster Competition in San Francisco November 11 – 14.  It was a clean sweep from the NUS High School of Math and Science with the other 2 place winners receiving cash prizes.  They were as follows:  Tim Ngiap Loon Terence was awarded second place (Ultrasmall peptide Therapeutics for inhibiting Amyloid Formation), and Lim Yu Han was awarded 3rd place (Efficient Generation of Human Dopaminergic Neurons from Embryonic Stem Cells and induced-Pluripotent Stem Cells).   The Judges also awarded 2 further cash prizes for effort.  They were as follows: Ng Yiwei from the National University of Singapore (Dendrimer-lipidhybrid system: Application in the delivery of anti-cancer drugs) and Hafiz Bacon from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Validation of the forecasting model developed by NUH Pharmacy Department)

Our heartiest congratulations to all entrants and prizewinners, and our thanks to the judging panel.  The Singapore Affiliate looks forward to another successful competition in 2013.
 

To read all about Gayathry's experience at the ISPE Annual Meeting 2012 in San Francisco, click here

ISPE Singapore Student Poster Competition 2011
The judging of the annual Student Poster Competition took place this year at the ISPE Singapore Conference on 30 May at Suntec City Convention Centre. We are pleased to announce that Mitali Kakran, from Nanyang Technological University, won the first place prize of an all-expenses paid trip to the ISPE Annual Meeting on 6-9 November in Dallas, Texas for her excellent poster "Comparison of Top-Down and Bottom-Up techniques for Production of Quercetin Nanocrystals".
To read all about Mitali's experience at the ISPE Annual Meeting 2011 in Dallas, Texas, click here.


ISPE Singapore Student Poster Competition 2010
The judging of the annual Student Poster Competition took place this year at the ISPE Singapore Conference on 6 June at Suntec City Convention Centre. We are pleased to announce that Teo Zi Qiang, from Nanyang Technological University, won the first place prize of an all-expenses paid trip to the ISPE Annual Meeting on 7-10 November in Orlando, Florida, for his excellent poster ""Tumor-derived ANGPTL4 instigates vascular disruption through interactions with endothelial junction proteins".

For more details on the 2010 Student Poster Competition, click here ( 101 KB).

To read all about Teo Zi Qiang's experience at the ISPE Annual Meeting 2010 in Florida, click here.

ISPE Singapore Conference 2010
6th - 8th June 2010
With the theme of "Celebrating Growth and Continuous Innovation", the 10th edition of the annual ISPE Singapore Conference was held from 6th till 8th June at SUNTEC Singapore, and saw a total of 366 participants from the region. A total of 29 international and regional speakers (from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom and USA) presented their views and insights at the conference. For more details on the conference, click here ( 333 KB).

ISPE Student Symposium 2009
6th November
The ISPE Singapore Affiliate held a very successful ISPE Student Symposium 2009 on 6 November for close to 400 participants. The event was a platform to reach out to tertiary-level students and adults who were interested in getting to know more about the biopharmaceutical industry. For details on the Symposium, click here ( 39 KB).

ISPETraining - Cleaning Validation Principles
22nd - 23rd October 2009
On 22 and 23 October, the Affiliate hosted ISPE’s Cleaning Validation Principles training course at Singapore Polytechnic Graduates Guild (SPGG). The course was conducted by Robert Walker, Principal, Rob Walker GMP Consultancy Ltd, chartered chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. For details, click here ( 31 KB).

ASTMStandard for Verification (C&Q)webinar
24th September 2009
The ISPE Singapore Affiliate organised a webinar session on Implementing the ASTM Standard for Verification (C&Q) on 24th September. Hosted by Zenith Technologies, Singapore, the pre-recorded webinar was led by Robert Steen who also moderated a discussion with attendees on the content of the presentation, after the webinar concluded.

Risk Management Seminar by Joe Brady
16 June 2009
Schering Plough
On 16 June 2009, the Singapore Affiliate held a seminar on “Effective and Efficient Application of Quality Risk Management for The Pharmaceuticals and Bio Pharmaceuticals Industries at Schering Plough's facility. The seminar was presented by Joe Brady of DPS Engineering. For details, click here.

9th ISPE Singapore Conference on 31 May – 3 June 2009 at Suntec Singapore
The 9th ISPE Singapore Conference, held from 31 May to 3 June, attracted more than 200 of the region’s key industry professionals, academia and regulators. Participants were treated to a series of pre-event workshops, 2-day conference programme featuring 9 industry tracks, as well as visits to 8 manufacturing facilities in Singapore.