PharmaGuide was founded as a training and consultancy 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
include university technology transfer managers, recruitment consultants and
lawyers.
In 2006, a separate drug discovery course was created specifically for freelance translators and
interpreters, with further courses on chemistry, biotechnology and immunology introduced in subsequent years.
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.
The above courses are complemented by books (published by
Springer and Cambridge University Press) and a series of online
guides being produced by PharmaGuide Ltd-see
Publications.
In addition to running public and in-house courses, 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 was a visiting lecturer at Cardiff University and is 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