Country Pharmacist

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world\\\\\\\'s leading crisis response agencies, providing life-saving assistance and supporting recovery and reconstruction for people affected by war and natural disasters. Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women\\\\\\\'s empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, IRC assists people from harm to home.

JOB OVERVIEW/SUMMARY:

As the technical lead on pharma management, the country pharmacist shall be responsible for quality assurance of all pharmaceutical products in the country programs and also act the bridge between Supply Chain and the Health Unit. S/he will participate in the definition of strategies for supply chain management, distribution and use of medical products and donations in the programs in line with the health department’s recommendations and policies whilst ensuring national regulations are followed. This position is the link with external actors/partners concerning pharmaceutical issues.

KEY RESPONSBILITIES

Pharmaceuticals and Supplies Management:

• Oversee the medical drugs and supplies quantification and ensures that all procured items are in the CP Essential Drug List. S/he will ensure drug consumption data is collected at health facilities, aggregated, analyzed and used for forecasting needs of the program.
• Monitors the availability of medical products to avoid stock-outs and financial losses generated by expired items; Collaborates with the Senior Health Manager/s to define stock security levels in IRC’s directly implemented facilities.
• In close collaboration with the Warehouse officer(s), develops stock levels alert (based on an average monthly consumption AMC and morbidity data); gathers stock indicators, analyze them and discuss with to the Health Coordinator / Supply Chain coordinator so as to avoid stock-outs and the financial losses generated by expired items.
• Provides input for international and local orders: draws up the first draft of orders with the Health Coordinator, reviews the parameters involved in replenishing stock, finalises orders based on consumption and future needs arising from the developments in the field
• Participates in defining strategies for supply, management, distribution and use of medical products in line with IRC’s recommendations and policies; under the supervision of the Health Coordinator and in collaboration with Health and Supply Chain Managers, support development/use of new pharmaceutical stock management systems and software;
• Participates in implementing the pharmaceutical supply chain standard operating procedures;
• Applies Good Distribution Practices (GDPs) for pharmaceutical products at storage level, and Good Dispensing Practices in end user units. These include:

Documentation verification:

• Conduct systematic checks of all medical goods purchased locally and for direct shipments, and control their details correspond to the requested specifications and the received documentation  (Certificate of Analyses)
• Check conformity of the received goods with the PO (Purchase Order) and the PL (Packing List) (strength, origin, manufacturer, batch number)

Transportation and storage:

• Ensure transportation of medical goods (including any dangerous goods and cold chain) is done in an appropriate manner and following national regulations.
• Conduct GDP self-assessment for the central warehouses with the assistance of GSC Pharma QA Manager, and follows up on Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) implementation
• Handle cold chain products according to the recommendations of the manufacturer
• Ensure that cold chain equipment is working properly and that daily temperature monitoring of cold chain items is in place
• Report to GSC Pharma QA Manager any cold chain breach (fills the cold chain breech report), who will advise on releasing the products
• Ensure that appropriate storage conditions are in place for medicines (including dangerous goods products) and advise any need for improvements
• Ensure controlled drugs are managed according to national regulation
• Ensure stock rotation according to FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out)
• Support in conducting monthly and annual physical stock counts

Quality assurance of commodities:

• Ensure with the support of HQ that all offered donations by any partner or others are in compliance with the IRC Quality Assurance Policy and IRC Donations SOP
• Follow-up any claim reports from the field concerning quality (IRC Complaint Form) with the GSC Pharma QA Manager and maintains a file with all claims
• Investigate and put in quarantine any medical product that has been identified as suspect - meaning that it may be counterfeit, unapproved, or potentially dangerous

Disposal and returns:

• Ensure disposal of health care products is done according with national regulations/or IRC Waste Disposal SOP, and that a disposal file is maintained
• Handle with the support of GSC Pharma QA Manager, any claim or batch recall according to WHO GDP guidelines (IRC batch recall SOP)
• Ensure full traceability of the medical products journey through all the stakeholders in the supply chain and is responsible for batch recall
• Organize return or exchange of rejected goods with the SCC
• Manages medical stock data and indicators, analyzes and interprets performance to support the necessary programmatic decisions or course corrections in collaboration with Health and Supply Chain staff (consumption, stock levels, stock-outs, pre-stock-outs, over-stocking, donations, expired products, disposal, etc.);
• Provides support to procurement and supplier management, this includes:
• In coordination with the GSC Pharma QA Manager, maintain, update and file the CP Pharma Database (list of validated suppliers)
• Provide the purchasing team with a list of validated suppliers approved and validated by the GSC Pharma QA Manager (ensures that all local purchases are done via prequalified suppliers)
• Ensure that all requested items by the Health team are compliant with the CP EDL, and flags any discrepancy. If non-standard items are requested, asks the Health Coordinator to get the green-light from HQ before proceeding with the order
• In coordination with the GSC Pharma QA Manager, perform market assessment for preselection of products and suppliers and organizes visits of suppliers
• Supervise the store release, distribution, and transfer of all stock to the required field site locations;
• Technical Support and Capacity Building
• Provide support supervision to the pharmacy technicians and dispensers at field sites to ensure proper management and reporting of medical drugs and supplies, and ensure a quality-assurance system is incorporated into the health facilities and medical stores
• Provide technical guidance to the pharmacy officers in all aspects of drug supply management - continuously assess the staff needs, identify gaps and adapt plans/activities to respond to these gaps.
• Provide continuous Pharma training for Supply Chain and Health Unit staff on the IRC Pharma SOP’s and GDPs

Key Working Relationships:

Position Directly Reports to: Health Coordinator (dotted line to Supply Chain Coordinator)

Technical Referent: HU Pharmacy Advisors/GSC Senior Manager, Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance

Other Internal Contacts: Senior Health Managers, Supply Chain and Warehouse Managers, Health Officers, clinical teams

Other External Contacts: Other local NGO and INGOs

Job Requirements:  

1. Education: Pharmacist with Bachelor\\\\\\\'s degree in pharmacy or pharmacology and/or equivalent qualifications with experience in emergency environments with at least 3-5 years of experience in pharmaceutical management, preferably within Humanitarian contexts. Evident 1 year experience in pharmaceutical stores management, basic training/skills in store management is added advantage. Master’s in pharmacy or Pharmacology would be of added value.
2. Strong experience in management, capacity building, and training the staff
3. Demonstrated leadership, communication, and facilitation skills, excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
4. Additional qualities: Works well in and promotes teamwork, ability to multitask, ability to handle pressure well, ability to improvise, be flexible, and adaptability to transitions.
5. MS excel/computer literacy skills are a must

Language Skills: English, Urdu

The IRC Core Values and Commitments;

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children

IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicit and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates and differently abled persons are highly encouraged to apply.