Bristol Myers Squibb’s Padraig Landers discusses the company’s Cruiserath expansion, his career journey and his advice for anyone seeking a promotion.
Near the end of February, pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) announced a $400m investment for an expansion at its Dublin 15 Cruiserath facility. The expansion will see the establishment of a new sterile drug product facility and the creation of 350 new jobs across a number of departments including engineering, manufacturing operations, quality and manufacturing science and technology.
With construction of the facility beginning this month, SiliconRepublic.com spoke to Padraig Landers, senior director of sterile drug product operations at BMS, who is heavily involved in the project.
Landers, who has a bachelor’s degree in industrial chemistry from the University of Limerick and a graduate diploma in bioprocessing from University College London, has been working in pharma and biopharma manufacturing since he finished his undergraduate studies.
In 2016, he was inspired to join BMS as an associate director of manufacturing technology. “The combination of working for BMS, the immuno-oncology pipeline, and lure of a drug product site on our campus convinced me to make a move,” he said.
Two years later, Landers took on a new role as site quality head, which he said gave him “a true end-to-end appreciation of the manufacturing process and quality systems that oversee current good manufacturing practice”. He stayed in this role until last year, when he learned of the Cruiserath investment plan and applied for his current role in sterile drug product operations, as the position directly aligned with what motivates and engages him.
“What has been clear to me throughout my years in this industry and across my career is that I know what I derive value from. This includes working in a team environment, winning for the people who I work with, the site I work on, and the company that I represent – but most importantly the patients who we serve.”
What kind of day-to-day duties will you have as part of this role as the project develops?
As senior director for the sterile drug product operations, I am responsible for ensuring that operationally the new manufacturing facility is being set up for success. This includes responsibility for ensuring the operational requirements for all teams are at the fore during design, construction and the qualification phases. In parallel, we are building the systems and processes to support the successful transfer of commercial portfolio and pipeline into the facility.
As with any site start-up, there are multiple competing activities that support near-term and long-term deliverables. My role is to ensure there’s an appropriate balance and priority across those demands.
One of my most important focus areas is ensuring we have the right people with the right capability at the right time to deliver on the end goal. Our people strategy, including hiring and staffing, is a constant focus of my time day to day and will remain so throughout the project.
‘A career does not need to be linear’
The products that we will manufacture will be familiar with many people who currently work on our campus, as they are directly aligned with the biologics portfolio and support therapeutic areas across oncology, immunology and haematology.
In addition to supporting existing commercial brands, a key driver for the new sterile drug product facility will be to support product launch and brand teams with a pathway through late stage clinical and commercialisation.
You have held multiple leadership roles at BMS, how does the company support career progression?
It’s great to have a plan but I was never singularly focused on any single career path. There is a danger that you can become too fixated on specific outcomes and lose opportunities tangential to your current role.
I believe that your career is a journey. A lot of people may get focused on time-bound plans or very focused on a career trajectory. I believe that a career does not need to be linear, and I have been very open minded throughout mine and chased experience as opposed to trajectory, moving from various departments and developing skills and capabilities along the way.
‘Don’t wait for somebody to approach you and take control of your own career’
My career trajectory has been largely defined by being focused on delivery within my current role, maximising the learning from it and taking advantage of new opportunities as they come up. It has transitioned from a tactical subject matter expert role to people manager to site leadership over the course of my time in the industry.
Throughout my career, all my managers and mentors have supported me in these efforts and my career goals. We have a super learning and development programme at BMS so we can upskill our talented people and provide them with opportunities to work in different teams, learn new skills and feel empowered to shape their career. We want them to know there can be a career for life at the company.
Do you have any advice for someone seeking an internal promotion with their current company?
Don’t wait for somebody to approach you and take control of your own career. Look at it as an opportunity to ‘chase experience’ as opposed to immediate career progression. Get familiar with the projects, tours of duty or other areas where you can open yourself up to developing further experience and capabilities.
It’s also important to appraise what’s important to the company. Consider what the objectives are and discuss these with your manager to see where you can fit in to gain experience on projects, or where you can stretch yourself to take accountability for where your department inputs into these strategic objectives.
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