PharmaGuide was founded as a training company in 2004 by Dr Ed Zanders under the name ScienceInform. Based in Cambridge England, PharmaGuide is at the centre of the United Kingdom's biotechnology hub and is up-to-date with the latest science and business information.
Since its founding, PharmaGuide offers its courses on How the Drug Discovery Industry Works to a range of clients from professionals with no scientific background, up to PhD level scientists. Clients for the courses, held in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK and elsewhere, include university technology transfer managers, recruitment consultants, lawyers and freelance translators.
A second course Presentation Skills for Scientists was introduced
in 2005 and is designed to help young scientists from academia and
industry to improve their verbal communication at conferences and
seminars. The emphasis is on the presentation of scientific data, so
the course covers not only the skills required for public speaking
but also detailed guidance on data presentation and other issues
of concern to the practising scientist.
Both of the above courses are complemented by books (published by
Springer and Cambridge University Press respectively -see
Publications).
In addition to running public courses, the Company has run a number of in-house training courses, in both the drug discovery industry and scientific presentation skills, for companies and universities. PharmaGuide also deals with business executives and scientists on an ad hoc basis, producing bespoke courses to cover their particular requirements. Representative examples of past projects include:
The founder and managing director of PharmaGuide,
Ed has over
twenty-five years' experience in research in biochemistry and
related sciences, both within academia and industry.
He was a senior scientist and research manager at Glaxo (later GlaxoWellcome) in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, specialising in drug discovery research for inflammatory diseases.
After sixteen years with this major pharmaceutical company, he became a research manager at DeNovo Pharmaceuticals, a small Cambridge drug design company, where he gained firsthand experience of the scientific and business interactions between small biotechnology start-ups and large pharmaceutical companies.
Later on, he was involved in other biotech ventures, including co founding Pilot Pharmaceuticals, which received funding for developing intellectual property licensed from the British Technology Group in the field of metabolic diseases. Ed brings together these experiences of working at the heart of the biopharmaceutical industry to provide consultancy services to a number of organisations such as the Wellcome Trust and a specialist telemarketing company.
As a trainer, Ed draws on his experiences not only to provide informed content, but also to communicate technical material to specialists and non-specialists alike. Having previously delivered courses for other training companies and delivered many scientific presentations, he is well experienced in understanding his clients’ needs. As well as running PharmaGuide, Ed is a visiting lecturer at Cardiff University and an author of books and articles related to biomedical research and drug discovery.
Lindsay MacLeod is a trainer for the practical session
of our Presentation Skills for Scientists course.
She is an experienced London Blue Badge guide, being an official guide at The British Museum, The Houses of Parliament and Spencer House as well as on individually tailored tours.
She is Chair of the Qualifications Board of the Institute of Tourist Guiding and has taught presentation skills to Blue Badge guides since 1991; she is therefore well qualified to provide practical training in key aspects of public speaking. Lindsay is co-author (with Ed Zanders) of Presentation Skills for Scientists - A Practical Guide.
“Very comprehensive. Useful handbook and good slides. It makes a difference that the presenter is a PhD scientist with personal experience in industry and academia.”
Dr Lynley Marshall,
Institute of Cancer Research, London