The manufacture of drugs and medical devices which are used on humans are regulated by Good manufacturing Practices or GMP, and pharmaceutical companies must comply with this. GMP is used to ensure that the quality of drugs is kept high enough to avoid health risks. There are new pieces of legislation brought in to cover GMP all the time as new drugs are developed and technology advances. It would be impossible for a pharmaceutical company to keep up with all of these new regulations unless they made use of GMP consulting.

A company can either hire a permanent member of staff to advise it on GMP or make use of an independent consulting firm. The latter choice is the best for sever reasons.

For financial reasons, it costs less to use an independent consultancy firm than it does to employ a full time member of staff. You will probably use the consultant between two and four times a year unless a major development in medicine occurs. If you were to permanently hire someone you are looking at an average salary of £60,000.

There are more reasons than price to choose independent. A GMP consulting firm’s collective knowledge will be 100 times greater than 1 member of staff. Their technical experience as well as their knowledge of science and drugs is immense. Comparing one in-house staff member to a whole consultancy firm will show you that you get more experience with the latter.

They advise companies on many aspects of business. They advise on communication with national and international governing bodies over audits, inspections and warning letters. Troubleshooting is addresses whenever a new system or new rule is brought in which effects the company’s production process. Legal issues are also something dealt with by them. During the validation process consultants can help with records and computers.

No pharmaceutical company would be able to stay on top of every new GMP regulation without the aid of GMP consulting firms. Their knowledge and experience in the industry puts them much higher above any individual permanent employee.