Rotation Locations

Primary Site: 

Glaxo Wellcome Inc.

 7333 Mississauga Rd North

 Mississauga, ON  L5N 6L4

Secondary Site:

Glaxo Wellcome Inc.

Bureau d'Affaires du Quebec

771 Rue Gougeon

 Ville St. Laurent, QC  H4T 2B4

Preceptor Name: 

Brief Description of Rotation Site, Preceptor(s) and Rotation.

Rotation Site:/

Glaxo Wellcome is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.  Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Glaxo Wellcome employs more than 60,000 employees worldwide in over 70 countries and invests approximately £1.2 billion annually on Research and Development into new therapeutic compounds.  In Canada, Glaxo Wellcome Inc. employs over 1200 employees with the head office located in Mississauga, Ontario.  To service the Quebec population, Glaxo Wellcome also has a substantial business office located in Montreal.  The Canadian operating company has been designated one of the ten designated Research and Development centres within the Glaxo Wellcome world and, outside of the US and UK, has the largest Medical Sciences Division (encompassing Medical Information, Clinical Research, Regulatory Affairs, Biostatistics) employing over 175 people in 1998.

Glaxo Wellcome's business philosophy is to grow profitably by becoming an active partner with its customers in every therapeutic field it is involved in.  GW strives to be a leader in the pharmaceutical industry in improving disease outcomes in the healthcare system by promoting the optimal use of medicines with innovative programs and services to deliver value to its customers.  Glaxo Wellcome has a strong positive culture throughout the company based on corporate values.

Preceptor Information:

Glaxo Wellcome is committed to providing quality information to ensure the safe and effective use of its pharmaceutical products.  To that end, a dedicated medical information service has been developed that strives to provide timely, objective, factual information in response to all customer requests.  A staff of 16 healthcare professionals at our Mississauga and Montreal offices respond to a wide range of requests related to product and therapeutic issues, primarily from pharmacists, physicians, and consumers.  Collectively, the staff within medical information have an extensive background in the provision of professional drug information services in both the clinical and pharmaceutical industry settings.

In addition to responding to medical inquiries, the medical information staff are also frequently asked to provide medical/scientific support to other internal groups within the company, including Marketing, Sales, Corporate Affairs, and Regulatory affairs.

Medical Information staff are also responsible for reviewing and approving all promotional materials produced by the company to ensure that high standards of scientific and medical accuracy are adhered to, as well as ensuring that the stringent advertising codes of the company, the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association of Canada (PMAC) are upheld.

Lastly, Medical Information staff at GW are responsible for preparing the scientific sections of provincial formulary submissions.

Rotation Description:

Overall, the resident will be exposed to several areas of the Glaxo Wellcome as it pertains to the HIV/AIDS therapeutic area.

Primarily, the resident will have the experience of working in a busy, dynamic and professional industry medical information service.  There, the resident will be exposed to all the services provided by the Medical Information group.  The resident will be exposed to all therapeutic areas GW is involved with including HIV/AIDS, Anti-infectives/Anti-virals (non-HIV), CNS/Anaesthesia, Asthma/Allergy, and Oncology/GI and will be required to take regular rotations in answering the Medical Information 1-800 telephone line.  The resident's project work, however, will focus specifically within the area of HIV/AIDS.

Secondarily, during the four week rotation, the resident will also have the opportunity of working for a short period (less than one week) with the GW HIV Marketing group located in Montreal, Quebec and will be asked to contribute to a project in that regard.  The purpose of this aspect of the rotation is to provide the resident with exposure as to how promotional strategies for HIV/AIDS medications are developed and implemented.

General Rotation Goals:

1. To develop the knowledge and skills to respond (both verbally and in a written format) to drug information requests in a pharmaceutical industry setting, with a focus on HIV/AIDS.

2. To understand the process of how promotional materials are reviewed and approved within the company.

2. To develop an understanding of the role of the medical information service within the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on the area of HIV/AIDS.

3. To allow the resident to be exposed to how pharmaceutical products are marketed through working with the HIV Marketing group.

Objectives of Rotation:

At the completion of this rotation, the resident will be able to:

1. Understand and show proficiency in responding to drug information requests.

• Determine the exact question being asked and the expected time frame for response.
• Determine the nature and depth of the required response (e.g., verbal vs written, brief summary vs in-depth review of the literature).
• Obtain the appropriate background information relating to the request.
• Develop a systematic search strategy in order to determine the appropriate references to utilize and in which order to utilize these references (e.g., know when it is appropriate to utilize only textbooks vs beginning with textbooks and proceeding to review articles or original literature).
• Locate the relevant information in an efficient and timely manner.
• Accurately judge when sufficiently reliable information has been obtained and critically evaluate the medical literature.
• Accurately and concisely summarize the relevant information which is appropriate for the question.
• Communicate effectively as necessary (either verbally or in a written format) to respond to the medical information request.

2. Understand the role of medical Information in reviewing and approving promotional material.

• Review promotional materials to ensure that a high level of scientific/medical accuracy is maintained, that they are consistent with the HPB approved product monographs, and ensure that all promotional materials comply with the Glaxo Wellcome advertising code, PAAB advertising codes, and PMAC code.

3. Determine the need for, and expectations of, professional drug information services in the pharmaceutical industry in general, and at Glaxo Wellcome Inc. in particular.

Resident's Responsibilities:

1. Accept responsibility for responding to drug information requests as determined by the preceptor and resident.

2. Complete at one written document which requires the resident to prepare a detailed summary of the relevant information available on a specified topic (e.g., Drug Information Letter, MedInfo Newsbriefs, competitor overviews, journal article critique).

3. Input to the development and updating of Medical Information databases (e.g., standard Drug Information Letters).

4. Complete at least one review of promotional material ideally in the HIV/AIDS area in accordance with Glaxo Wellcome's copy approval process.

5. Make one in-house presentation on a designated therapeutic topic related to HIV/AIDS as determined by the resident with the preceptor.

Additional Information: