To serve and protect pharma production
Tracy Clinch's New Brunswick company is on guard for vital—and expensive—pharmaceutical products (400 words, 2.5 min)
NPC Healthbiz Weekly is presented to you in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions
“Glass pharmaceutical vials and syringes can be damaged in production just like any other container,” says Tracy Clinch, Founder and CEO of Masitek. Especially during the pandemic, “getting every one of those vials through production into their shipping containers, and safely to their destinations, at the proper temperature, has become really critical.”
On the latest episode of the NPC Podcast, hosted by Peter Brenders, Clinch (photo below) described her company’s niche but vital role in helping bring drugs to market.
Masitek’s technology “started as a project to reduce damage to fragile fruits and vegetables,” Clinch explained, and the company was built around the patent. “It’s a sensor [designed] to determine where damage points were happening,” she said, “whether it was in production or packing or transport.”
“When we partnered on the patent, we saw the application being expanded into the glass and fragile container industry. We did a complete overhaul of the sensor technology. We changed the application from potatoes to glass and aluminum cans, aerosols, or any type of fragile container that can be damaged in production.”
Clinch said that for pharmaceutical companies, “the cost of damaging vials in production means complete shutdown, complete cleanup, resetting the line, and then producing again. The cost of a shutdown in Pharma is even greater than that of the beer companies or food companies we’ve worked with.”
“There are many types of inspection equipment on pharmaceutical production lines, but those are moment-in-time snapshots of what is happening to that vial,” Clinch said. Masitek’s appeal is that “it’s a dynamic sensor that goes into all parts of the production line so that we can determine exactly where that damage happened earlier in the line.”
Drawing on her own experience as Masitek’s founder, Clinch advises future entrepreneurs to “try to stay as focused as possible, especially in any type of technology or innovation that’s new to the market.”
“Early on in your technology journey, you’ll find that customers that you really, really want will tell you ‘we would buy this, if only it could do X,’ or ‘we would buy this if only you could build it this way,’” she said. “Every time we tried to go down a slightly different path away from what the core technology was, we lost ourselves a little bit.”
“I really like partnering with our customers to solve problems,” Clinch said. Masitek’s team has stayed focused by “reminding ourselves constantly what we were trying to achieve and how we were trying to achieve it.”
Further reading: Learn more about how Masitek’s technology is used to improve pharmaceutical production efficiency.
LISTEN NOW
Hear the whole story: Tune in to this week’s episode of the NPC Podcast to hear Tracy Clinch in conversation with our host, Peter Brenders, about Masitek’s founding, technology, and pandemic experience. Plus, hear what it takes to start a successful global company based in Moncton, NB.
WEEK 08/31/21
Pendopharm, a division of Pharmascience Inc., has received Health Canada approval for low-dose Myinfla (colchicine 0.5mg tablets) for reducing cardiovascular risks in patients with coronary artery disease. Approval was based primarily on a study conducted in cooperation with the Montreal Heart Institute.
Incyte has announced Health Canada’s conditional approval of Minjuvi (tafasitamab), a monoclonal antibody combined with lenalidomide for treating adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who are not eligible for autologous stem cell transplant. This is Incyte’s first authorization in Canada; it provides a new option for patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL, the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The Valens Company, a Canadian manufacturer of cannabis products, has broadened its previous extraction services agreement with a leading licensed producer to include custom manufacturing of cannabis products, including pre-rolls for several of the licensed producer’s brands. This agreement is the largest to date for Valens.
CANADIAN HEALTHCARE MARKETING HALL OF FAME
The Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame awards were established in 2002 to honour healthcare marketers who have contributed to our vocation and inspire others.
More than 100 honourees have been selected during the past 18 years. In the selection committee's view, they stand for a representative cross-section of the qualities that make our business unique and fulfilling. Each week, NPC Healthbiz Weekly will acknowledge one past Hall of Fame Honouree.
2017 Inductee
Jim Hall
Guelph, Ont.
Editor’s Note: Jim Hall is now Senior Vice President and General Manager at Covis Pharma.
It’s not often that someone can find a career that allows them to indulge two passions. For Jim Hall, General Manager at Aralez Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., passions for science and business came together as a formula for a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry.
“When I was doing my MBA, I had the opportunity to work at a pharmaceutical company as well,” said Hall. “The reason I was interested in doing that is I really felt that pharma was a good way for me to apply my science degree, and my love for science, and my business degree and my love for business, in a vibrant business environment. It was a pretty good way to combine the two.”
“When I first started to work there as a student, that was all confirmed, and I never really looked back.”
Throughout his career, Hall has held various senior-level commercial roles at Hoffmann La Roche, AstraZeneca, and Searle/Pharmacia and held the position of Vice President of Commercial at Astellas Pharma.
At Searle, he was given the responsibility for quickly expanding their sales force. “We added about 60 salespeople in about a six-month period or less,” he said. “We basically doubled the size of our sales force, and I was the newly appointed head of sales at that time.”
As he has moved through the pharmaceutical industry in Canada, there have been several projects that Hall is particularly proud of, he said. These include the launches of Celebrex, Myrbetriq and Xtandi for various companies.
Hall also said he was proud of his role in assisting Astellas, Roche, and AstraZeneca in developing patient-centric approaches. From an extracurricular perspective, he also enjoys teaching a marketing course at the DeGroote School of Business MBA program to some very bright students (and potential future industry leaders).
His current position has been a unique project, he said. “That has been a great challenge from a leadership perspective. An opportunity to lead an organization, with the help of my team, to develop a strategy for the company going forward.”
As General Manager, Hall has had to learn and understand how to lead all the company's functions, such as the medical function and the regulatory function, and supporting the heads of those functional areas. “[It has also meant] understanding and getting intimately involved in the manufacturing and supply of our products which I have never really done before. And getting really involved in business development—doing deals and forming partnerships with other companies.”
Looking forward to the near future of pharma in Canada, Hall said that cost containment in the face of ever-increasing healthcare costs and drug approvals and reimbursement will continue to be ongoing challenges. However, those challenges are not necessarily to be feared, he said.
“I look at everything as an opportunity to do something different, to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, to bring value to customers,” said Hall. “Whether they are governments, or patients, or health care professionals.”
STILL LISTENING? TRY ANOTHER PODCAST
And now for something completely different. As part of an educational series on dermatologic concerns in Black skin, Dr. Neil Shear, former Head of Dermatology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and founder of its Drug Safety Clinic, and Dr. Brian Carleton, Senior Clinician Scientist at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, discuss Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), also known as toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). SJS/TEN is a drug-induced disease involving extensive blistering of the skin and a high risk of death—but genetic markers can help predict which patients it may occur. Tune in for a discussion of genetic screening and rare drug reactions.
NEXT WEEK
In the 09/07 edition of NPC Healthbiz Weekly, we’ll hear from Martine Elias, Executive Director of Myeloma Canada, as she describes the experience of cancer patients during the pandemic. It’s easy to get your no-charge subscription and have the issue sent to your phone or inbox each Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. sharp.
Stay safe, stay sure, and stay on your game. We’ll see you again in September.