Role of Project Manager In

Pharmaceutical Industry

ABSTRACT

Project managers are the people with mind blowing skills. This
allows them to think about a project beyond the basic skill set
needed to manage it. Project manager ensure project success.
Pharmaceuticals project managers must effectively manage the
engineers, doctors, researchers, and other experts to make
sure that medical trials are running smoothly on time and
budget.

Who are project managers?

Project managers are people with an excellent entrepreneurial

mindset. They make project goals their own and use their skills
and expertise to inspire a sense of shared purpose within the
project team. They enjoy the organized adrenaline of new
challenges and the responsibility of driving business results.
This allows them to think about a project beyond the basic skill
set needed to manage it.
Basic key roles of project manager
 Activity and resource planning
 Organizing and motivating a project team
 Controlling time management
 Cost estimating and developing the budget
 Ensuring customer satisfaction
 Analyzing and managing project risk
 Monitoring progress
 Managing reports and necessary documentation

Why pharmaceutical industry needs project manager?

Drug development is unpredictable and therefore it is critical to
have realistic expectations for any given project. There are
inherent difficulties in running a drug development successfully
and the larger the project the more numerous potential
problems can be found.
For example a pharmaceutical company decides to invest in its
new drug, there is no chance of success unless a project is
effectively managed. At present the pharmaceutical industry is
under pressure to improve its productivity, and it’s new
products reaching the market has been on the decline.
It is these circumstances that have led to the rise of project
managers in the pharmaceutical industry. Project managers are
able to apply past experience to ongoing projects in order to
solve problems in a practical manner whilst also being able to
develop new approaches to resolve project-specific issues.

Key role of project manager In pharmaceutical company

 Drives project planning, including assembling a written
plan, tracking progress of execution towards targets,
and performing risk analysis that anticipates potential
problems and proactively develops back-up plans.
 Partners with leads across functions (Development,
Clinical, Regulatory, etc) to provide support and to
achieve key milestones within the time, cost and quality
parameters.
 Ensures all projects are reviewed and approved
according to standards, and ensures team
understanding of SOPs and procedures.
 Focuses executive time on most critical issues.
 Resolves cross-functional barriers, delays,
misalignments and misunderstandings.
 Identifies risks and make select interventions to meet
objectives.
 Responsible for integrating process development
activities by developing and maintaining project
schedules.
  Working with the global operations team and technical
leaders in process development to create project
schedules.
 Ensure participation in functional and cross-functional
management reviews.
 Establish and manage collaboration and team sites.
 Track delivery and create repositories for all projects.
 Partner with business analysis and performance to
report product metrics.
 Support business process improvements.
 Project reporting including appropriate risk analysis

Conclusion
Project managers, and upper management share
responsibilities in creating an environment conducive to project
success. Support from senior leaders in providing the resources
and desired talents in a timely fashion is crucial in executing a
project successfully. Proactive measures by the project
manager to mitigate risks and create a culture of effective
communication among stakeholders and team members are
valuable factors in achieving project success.