INSPIRATIONAL LEADER
Confidence is key to business success
After more than three decades working for pharmaceutical firms, HELEN MUIRHEAD bit the bullet. She quit corporate life and launched her own consultancy, GMPharma Limited.
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ith so much experience behind her, you’d think it would be an easy transition to make – but Helen was beset by doubts over whether it would work. As it turned out, she needn’t have worried. Four years later, the firm has built up partnerships with leading scientific experts and global research institutions and now has clients all over the world, including in Hong Kong and China.
If I have one piece of advice for someone who wants to start a business, it’s that you should be confident in your abilities. Trust your instincts and remember the experience and knowledge you’ve built up previously.
“We’ve been extraordinarily successful,” says Helen. “We’re committed to getting new medicines out to patients and supporting our clients in the development of drugs, particularly respiratory medicines. Essentially, we’re the technical support; we supply knowledge to clients so they can develop their products and get them to market. We have a deep understanding of regulatory compliance issues and the processes that need to be followed.” So, the worry that she felt four years ago had been misplaced? “Absolutely,” she says. “If I have one piece of advice for someone who wants to start a business, it’s that you should be confident in your abilities. Trust your instincts and remember the experience and knowledge you’ve built up previously. There will be good days and down days but if you remain resilient, you can ride out the peaks and troughs.” “Another useful tactic is to surround yourself with a strong network of people, experts who can help you. You might be really good in your field but you can learn from others who have a different set of skills and knowledge.” Helen has built up a wealth of industry experience since leaving school at 16. She landed her first job in the food industry, conducting quality control testing on ingredients in the labs, before moving to a medium-sized pharma firm.
Eventually she entered the world of big pharma, working in formulation development in the respiratory division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “We are looking at numerous different ways of treating diseases via medicines delivered to the lungs, not just diseases like asthma and COPD” she says, “it is a very exciting time to work with dry powder inhalers and novel devices. These dry powder inhalers have a lower impact on the environment as opposed to traditional “puffer” inhalers which contain propellants. However, excitingly the industry is looking at changes to these inhaler propellants too, as I understand by monitoring recent scientific publications”. Helen, who has a chemistry degree, worked her way up the ladder at GSK and eventually headed up the respiratory centre of excellence at the firm. Then there was a change of heart. She says: “My husband and I both worked together in big pharma; he was accountable throughout his long career for many new products launched. We wanted a better work-life balance so we decided to quit in 2017 and established our own consultancy the following year.” It was a timely move. Given the wreckage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, respiratory disease prevention and control looks set to be a key growth area within the pharma industry. While Helen and Gordon will continue to support clients at home and abroad, they’re also keen to support local organisations, keeping the heart in Hertfordshire. Helen teaches budding scientists by giving lectures at local universities, as well as working with lung charities, and sponsoring an annual emerging scientist award at St Francis College in Letchworth – where she and her mother once attended. She also sits on the skills team of the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership Group, which identifies skills that the pharma industry will need to continue making world-leading medicines in the UK.
INSPIRE
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