Pitfalls in Pharmaceutical Production: Protecting the Actual Drug Makers

Adverse Reactions

While pharmaceuticals provide positive benefits for patients, what about workers that may be exposed during production? Elizabeth M. Vancza, Merck & Co. Inc., reveals to co-hosts Anne Chappelle and David Faulkner the role of occupational toxicologists in understanding the exposure risks of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other substances that may affect worker health, as well as how to protect them from these exposures.

About the Guest
Elizabeth M. Vancza, PhD, DABT, is currently an Associate Director of Occupational Toxicology at Merck & Co. Inc., where she assists business operations in the areas of occupational toxicology, potent compound safety evaluation and awareness, product quality/safety, and hazard/risk assessment. Before joining Merck in 2021, she worked as an occupational toxicologist for SafeBridge Consultants for over 10 years, serving clients worldwide, primarily from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Dr. Vancza earned her PhD and MS degrees from New York University, with respective concentrations in inhalation toxicology and immunotoxicology, and she remains a guest lecturer for the graduate program in the areas of risk assessment and genomics. She also is an Associate Member of the Occupational Alliance for Risk Science (OARS) Workplace Environmental Exposure Level (WEEL) Committee.
Dr. Vancza joined the Society of Toxicology (SOT) in 2004 and has remained an active member through her involvement on various committees and student outreach efforts for several Specialty Sections, Regional Chapters, and Special Interest Groups. She most recently completed a three-year term as Vice President (year one), President (year two), and Past President (year three) for the SOT Northeast Regional Chapter in 2021.

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1. Introduction to the Episode (00:00:00)

2. Discovering the World of Occupational Toxicology (00:01:28)

3. What Does an Occupational Toxicologist Do? (00:06:47)

4. When to Engage Occupational Toxicologists in the Drug Development Pipeline? (00:09:37)

5. The Importance of Facility Design (00:10:38)

6. A Dearth of Data (00:13:02)

7. Occupational Toxicology Explodes in the 1980s (00:15:18)

8. HPAPI and Antibody Drug Conjugates (00:16:47)

9. What Was a Significant Adverse Reaction in Your Life? (00:20:15)

10. Episode Credits (00:21:46)