Speaker: Austin Freeman

Seminar will be conducted online via Zoom.

Abstract

An overview of the Drug Development Process will be presented based on observations from the perspective of a formulation scientist with 30+ years industry experience. The significance of interdisciplinary collaboration through out all stages of the process (from pre-clinical to post-commercialization) will be discussed.

Speaker: Mr. Austin Freeman

Austin Freedman has extensive and varied experience in Industrial Pharmacy, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical R&D and Technology Transfer project leadership in the UK and Canada through Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome, GlaxoSmithKline, Patheon and Apotex. Austin’s accomplishments in technical project leadership are complemented by his skills in business management with P&L accountability, client relationship management and organizational & operational development. 

 

Austin earned his Bachelor’s in Pharmacy in 1984 from the University of London, UK and is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. His career in the pharmaceutical industry began by joining the Pharmaceutical Research Department of Glaxo Group Research, UK in 1984.  During the next 15 years, Austin gained in-depth knowledge and practical understanding in developing a wide range of pharmaceutical solid and liquid (including parenteral) products, spanning the entire drug development process from pre-clinical development to scale up and transfer to commercial production. In 1999, Austin transferred to GlaxoWellcome in Ontario, Canada to contribute his experience to the Pharmaceutical Sciences department, where he held CMC leadership roles on multi-national project teams developing significant products for GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline. 

 

Seeking an opportunity to contribute to a rapidly growing organization in a business/client service environment, Austin joined Formulation Development, Pharmaceutical Development Services at the Patheon (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) Toronto Region Operations in 2002.  During his 8-year career at Patheon, Austin had a variety of senior roles that combined his technical knowledge and business leadership to enable multidisciplinary pharmaceutical development units to meet the requirements of diverse portfolios of clients’ projects, which included formulation and manufacturing process development to support regulatory submissions, clinical programs and technology transfers. 

 

In 2011, Austin joined Apotex to lead Technical Operations at the site in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he facilitated operational excellence and new product launches in the fast-paced generic pharmaceutical environment. While at Apotex, Austin developed and implemented technology transfer process improvements to enable manufacturing processes for a wide variety of products to be transferred robustly between sites in Canada, Europe and India. 

 

Austin became an independent consultant in 2015, and combines his extensive experience in the innovator, generic and contract sectors of the pharmaceutical industry with his professional training as a pharmacist to provide CMC and Quality Assurance expertise to meet the needs of clients’ projects, through all stages of development and commercialization.