Collaboration in action: Nepali chemist receives 10 week bioanalytical training at three Dutch CRO’s

Deependra Sharma, a Chemist and Quality Control Manager in a Nepali pharmaceutical company, came to The Netherlands from September to November 2018 for 10 weeks to receive  full training in bioanalytical method development and validation, and clinical sample analysis.

Three Dutch bioanalytical CRO’s, including QPS Netherlands, Ardena ABL and PRA Health Sciences, facilitated the training that was organized by Jaap Wieling. The focus of the training was LC–MS/MS bioanalysis of small molecules, with part of the training featuring LBA, ICP-MS and clinical Phase I units.

In Nepal, Sharma has 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical QC. For future development, Sharma had a strong wish to learn about modern bioanalysis, a discipline not developed in Nepal. In the future there might be a need for bioanalytical expertise in his company, should clinical studies with generic products become compulsory.

Sharma met Wieling in Nepal last year, where Wieling served on a voluntary mission to train Sharma’s lab in the principles of GLP and HPLC. Back in The Netherlands, Wieling decided to give it a try and to set up a thorough learning program for Sharma in close collaboration with the CRO’s, which were very willing to voluntarily help and offer 3 weeks of internal training each.

The culmination of the training period was for Sharma to join the laboratory teams at the EBF Open Symposium in Barcelona, Spain (21–23 November), where he was also given a training certificate. After the conference,  Sharma returned to Nepal fully loaded with new knowledge and ideas.