Women in STEM: Inspiration from Innovators in Pharma

In recognition of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (1) on February 11, PharmTech interviewed Katy MacLellan, Technical Team leader, Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services Ltd., about her achievements working in the pharmaceutical industry and her opinions on the roles women play in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, especially when it comes to innovation in drug development.

What can you tell us about your background and your career in STEM?

MacLellan: I’m originally from South Uist, an island off the coast of Scotland, where access to STEM careers is limited, but I grew up with a keen interest for science; and I was able to achieve a Master’s in Chemistry and Drug Discovery from Strathclyde University. I spent my Master’s placement year working at Pfizer in Cork, Ireland where I was first exposed to pharmaceutical manufacturing, where I have found my interest lies and where I felt best suited my strengths in problem solving.

After graduating with my Master’s degree, I moved back to Cork to work for Eli Lilly, where I had fantastic mentorship from women in leadership roles. Seeing women in leadership increased my drive for success as I felt achieving my goals was more realistic. During this time, under the mentorship of my colleagues, I developed networks and relationships, which have contributed to my success.

After COVID I took around eight months off to travel around Southeast Asia and Australia. This was a fantastic experience where I was able to meet a diverse spectrum of people and get a new perspective on life.

While living in Australia, I worked for CSL Seqirus, where I obtained experience in the validation side of pharmaceutical manufacturing. One of the things that drew me to CSL as a company was that over 50% of their workforce was women, which is rare in STEM. This showed the company’s commitment to ensuring women in STEM have access to opportunities to allow us to succeed.

Since moving back to Scotland, I have been working at Symbiosis. We have a fantastic team here, and it has been a pleasure working with everyone. Symbiosis also has a diverse leadership team with representation of women within STEM. I am looking forward to continuing my career here.

What are some of the benefits of STEM programs for girls in school? How do these programs translate to women building careers in the pharmaceutical industry?

MacLellan: STEM programs in schools are necessary for visibility of the diversity of career paths and visibility of what women can achieve in their careers in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. I was not aware until my placement year at university of all the essential roles involved in making a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant effective and there’s something for every type of person including roles in operations, quality assurance, engineering, quality control, process development, health and safety, supply chain logistics, project and construction management, the list goes on! If we have visibility from an early age of the types of roles that are available in the pharmaceutical industry, it will make us as women more likely to engage with STEM courses at university as an entry point.

Financial support such as university grants, paid placements/internships and industry mentorship programmes are ways in which we can encourage women to consider STEM careers.

It’s within pharmaceutical manufacturing that research is realized to manufacture medicines. The challenges we face when ensuring a safe product for patients and a safe process for manufacturing are engaging ways of putting the critical thinking skills developed in STEM programs into practise.

It is important that women working in the pharmaceutical industry encourage young women to explore their interest in science. It can seem a daunting prospect to enter a career in a typically male-dominated industry so support networks for women within the workplace and between industry and universities are essential to bridge the gap for young women entering careers in pharmaceutical manufacturing. I personally had a fantastic network of supportive female mentors while working in previous roles whose guidance has shaped my career so far.

How do women working in STEM fields uniquely contribute to areas such as rare disease treatment development?

MacLellan: Science is for everyone, and women in STEM can uniquely contribute their individual ways of thinking to improve areas such as rare disease development.

Women in STEM have made fantastic contributions to areas like rare disease treatment, such as Dr. Caroline Barelle who founded Elasmogen, which is working to innovate immune mediated diseases.

What exciting innovations do you see on the horizon for the pharmaceutical industry?

MacLellan: I am always interested in process analytics, as my introduction to pharmaceutical manufacturing was in the Pfizer manufacturing process analytics and control department. Advancements in the analysis of process data used to determine root causes for process issues or to highlight out of trend data before an issue occurs will always be beneficial in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

Another subject I have been finding interesting lately is AI and machine learning in drug discovery. Drug discovery is typically a long process spanning a decade or more; however with advancements in AI to streamline this pathway, assist in improving lead target identification and the potential for safer drugs evaluating existing data, this may reduce critical timelines to bringing a drug to clinic.

Who are you inspired by in the pharmaceutical industry?

MacLellan: On a personal level, I am inspired everyday by the women I work with. I have had some fantastic female mentors who have supported me professionally and personally throughout my career to date. The support of female mentors has helped me to decide which direction I would like my career to progress in and having visibility of women in leadership positions inspires hope for my future.

I attended a conference recently where I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Catherine Green; her passion for vaccine development was inspiring. Her story about how the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was developed in such a short timeline was an exciting example of the pace pharmaceutical development and manufacturing can move at in a time of need and her contribution ultimately saved countless lives throughout the COVID pandemic. This especially hit close to home with my role at Symbiosis, as the company played a pivotal role in the clinical development of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, manufacturing nearly one million doses to support clinical trials and enable accelerated regulatory approval in the United Kingdom.

What are you currently working on that you are passionate about?

MacLellan: Symbiosis has recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Stirling, increasing our manufacturing capacity up to 15,000 vials per batch. This additional capacity will allow the company to build long-lasting partnerships with clients as they move from the clinical trials stage to commercial manufacturing.

I am immensely proud of the Symbiosis team for the hard work and commitment that has gone into getting the facility operational. This has been an exciting project to be part of, and the passion in our team for ensuring manufacturing in this facility will be successful has been inspiring.

Reference

1. UN. International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February. UN.org. https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day

About the speaker

Katy MacLellan is Technical Team leader at Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services. Symbiosis is a contract development and manufacturing organization based in Stirling, Scotland, specialising in the good manufacturing practice sterile manufacturing of injectable drug products. MacLellan works on tech transfers for client projects.