What’s it like to work at Pure Drug Safety – Lottie’s view

We had the pleasure of welcoming two interns to work with us this summer at Pure Drug Safety. However, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, we had to establish some very different working practices to keep everyone safe.

Despite never actually being able to meet the interns and welcome them physically into our offices at PDS, they very quickly became part of our team. Their enthusiasm and dedication was a delight and we wish them all the very best in their continuing studies and future chosen careers.

In the first of two blog posts, here is Lottie’s view on working with Pure Drug Safety this summer. We hope you enjoy reading it.

~ Carol Kingstone

Lottie’s experiences

Lottie Wurr

My name is Lottie Wurr and I was a summer intern at Pure Drug Safety, I am currently studying medicinal chemistry as an undergraduate at Newcastle University and I am going back into my third year. My internship at PDS has been for 5 weeks and mostly online due to the coronavirus.

I came into this internship unsure of the specific career path I wanted to go down within the pharmaceutical industry. PDS has allowed me to gain so much knowledge and insight into all the different careers possible other than the most obvious lab work. I started this internship knowing lab-based work was not where my interest lay. Therefore, the opportunities this internship has given me to explore and be involved in all aspects of the industry is invaluable.

When I began looking for internship opportunities and found PDS it immediately stood out to me because it was an area I had not previously explored and I found the whole concept of what they did exciting. Pharmacovigilance was something I had not met before but the internship straight away let me delve into the world of drug safety and gave me a thorough understanding, a lot more than just the science involved which is what I am used to. The PDS team have been nothing but friendly and helpful and always a phone call or email away.

Working from home was something I was at first sceptical about primarily because I would not be getting that feel for working life in the office. However, I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked working from home, our days were filled with Zoom calls and update meetings. We had the opportunity to sit in and and give our opinions in marketing meetings and we had a variety of different projects set for us. From designing newsletters to making spreadsheets of potential clients. There has not been a moment I have had nothing to do or not been learning a new skill or something new about the industry.

PDS has allowed me to explore the world of pharmacovigilance and gain a real insight and understanding of the industry. I have learnt so much and feel as though the experience will benefit me greatly when perusing a career after I have finished at university. My whole time there has been thoroughly enjoyable and the support from Carol throughout has been amazing and I cannot thank her enough.

~ Lottie Wurr