Pfizer’s Lisa Grimsditch: The Importance of the Project Management Office
Lisa Grimsditch leads the COMBACTE-CARE Project Management Office (PMO) since 2016. She is part of Pfizer, the lead EFPIA partner in the COMBACTE-CARE project.
“I’ve been in the pharmaceutical business for over 20 years, in AstraZeneca (AZ). After I finished my degree (MSc in Biology and Biochemistry) I secured a role within AstraZeneca and during my time at the company I worked in many different areas, from project management (including leading the UK clinical PMO), procurement (UK Procurement Director) and ultimately an Alliance Management role in the Antibiotic Business Unit.
Following Pfizer’s acquisition of the antibiotics portfolio I was fortunate to secure a very similar role within Pfizer, which has enabled me to continue to provide alliance management support.”
How did you join the COMBACTE-CARE PMO?
“I was aware of the projects and activities within the antibiotic business unit, especially the public private partnerships that had been initiated to support the increase of understanding of drug resistant infections (DRI) and support the registration of ATM-AVI. I thought working with public private partnerships would provide me with a different perspective in terms of drug development and provide new challenges and opportunities to build upon my previous experiences.”
How do you find working with a public private partnership?
“One of the major advantages of working in a public private partnership, from my perspective is the opportunity to work with partners from many different institutions and establish a set of common goals that we all work on together to support. This ensures that we can all work through the challenges and find a way forward in order to deliver requirements to time, quality and budget.
Working in a public private partnership also provides an opportunity to appreciate different perspectives and viewpoints and in turn modify approaches and outputs as appropriate. It is a very good learning opportunity I would highly recommend.”
What do people need to know about the PMO?
“The importance of the PMO within the COMBACTE projects is to drive and promote consistency, whether that’s with the annual reporting, communication, or basic administration and look for more effective ways to deliver. We are there to help and support the work packages (WPs) and ensure we are providing the correct level of input and leadership to drive efficient ways of working to safeguard funding. I strongly feel the centralisation of support does drive efficient ways of working, whilst allowing the work packages to drive the science and innovation.”
How is the collaboration between the different partners in the COMBACTE-CARE PMO?
“A lot of the partners have been supporting COMBACTE-CARE from the beginning of the project. I’m probably one of the relatively newer members of the project! There has been a lot of support for me and my new Pfizer colleagues as we have taken up our new roles. The level of collaboration has been really good.”
-
As we move forward and these networks become stronger, I think that collaboration will only get bigger and better. Not just within COMBACTE-CARE, but within all of the COMBACTE projects. I think we have a great foundation, with a clear a pathway to make things even better.
Lisa Grimsditch, Pfizer
Related updates
Pfizer Receives Positive CHMP Opinion for its Novel Antibiotic Combination for the Treatment of Patients with Multidrug-Resistant Infections and Limited Treatment Options
COMBACTE is proud to announce a significant milestone achieved in COMBACTE-CARE. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended granting a market...
REVISIT: A Novel Tool to Treat Highly-Resistant Pathogens?
