QA Operations Specialist II (906) at Civica Rx

About Civica

Civica is a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization established in 2018 by health systems and philanthropies to reduce chronic generic drug shortages and related high prices in the United States. Civica is led by an experienced team of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry leaders. 

Today, more than 55 health systems have joined Civica. They represent over 1,500 hospitals and one-third of all U.S. hospital beds. Civica has also begun to supply the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile of essential medicines. 

Civica recently announced plans to expand its mission, via a unit called CivicaScript, to into the outpatient pharmacy space and to manufacture and distribute insulins that, once approved, will be available to people with diabetes at significantly lower prices than insulins currently on the market. The availability of Civica’s affordable insulins, beginning in 2024, will benefit people with diabetes who have been forced to choose between life sustaining medicines and living expenses, particularly those uninsured or underinsured who often pay the most out of pocket for their medications.

Civica’s mission is to ensure that quality generic medications are accessible and affordable to everyone. Since established, the #1 Policy for the Civica team has been “Do What Is in the Best Interest of Patients.” Civica’s manufacturing facility in Petersburg, Virginia, is the future home of affordable insulin and essential sterile injectable medicines. The facility is currently in late-stage construction and hiring for the site is well-underway.

To find out more about how Civica’s innovative model is directly impacting patient care, click here to read a summary from the New England Journal of Medicine. (https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.21.0189)

To learn more about Civica’s plans to bring affordable insulin to Americans living with diabetes, click here to read an article in BioSpace.

(https://www.biospace.com/article/civica-is-rallying-leaders-to-make-insulin-affordable-by-2024-/)

Job Description

The QA Operations Specialist II will join the Civica, Inc. (“Civica”) organization and its newly forming team at the Petersburg, Virginia site by bringing their knowledge and experience in service to patients and pursuit of excellence in quality and compliance.  The Petersburg site serves as Civica’s new fill finish facility dedicated to the manufacture and supply of essential generic sterile injectable medications. 

The role is essential to assure the Petersburg site’s manufacturing and operations activities comply with applicable regulatory standards (e.g., Current Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Distribution Practices) and expectations for the development and reliable supply of quality medicines. 

Responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to, Quality Operations review and approval of materials, bill of materials, batch records and GMP documentation to support the design, implementation, and maintenance of manufacturing processes for insulin, biologics or biosimilar medicines that meets or exceed FDA requirements.  

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support operational compliance aspects of sterile fill-finish manufacturing of insulin and biologics or biosimilar small molecule products including but not limited to material, bill of material and executed batch record review and approval.
• Partner with operations to develop manufacturing batch records to be compliant with regulatory and company requirements.
• Working cross-functionally to determine defect criticality, inspection methods, and training plans for both QA Operations and Manufacturing employees.
• Act as a resource for colleagues.
• Lead or participate in Quality Risk Management Processes as needed.
• Promote a safety and quality-first mindset in daily job functions.
• Consistently represent the Quality Unit as a proactive and GxP-compliant team player when working with Operations in daily job duties.
• Ensure that all aspects of the handling, and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products at the site comply with Civica and relevant FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulatory requirements.
• Support material receipt, quality control, chain of custody, disposition, and release of materials within the Enterprise Resource Planning system.
• Maintain current knowledge of FDA and Civica requirements to keep pace with evolving requirements for manufacturing.
• Support, lead, or approve documents, change controls, investigations and CAPAs to support Civica’s Quality Management System.
• Proactively identify and work collaboratively to resolve problems by taking risk-based and compliant approaches to solutions.
• Proactively be a team lead for department objectives with a minimal amount of supervision.
  • Includes complex project management that may overlap with other functional areas.
• Support site objectives with a minimal amount of supervision.
  • Includes simple project management that may involve other functional areas.
• Travel is limited but may occasionally be required.

Basic Qualifications and Capabilities:

• 6 years’ experience working directly with manufacturing in the pharmaceutical or medical device industries. Appropriate combinations of experience and bachelor-level or higher education.
• Project management, organization, and execution skills are required.
• Ability to apply technical expertise to solve problems and issues.
• Participating in and leading activities that support regulatory agency inspections is required.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills and experience using various software/electronic applications required.
• Self-motivated, flexible, and able to work in a small, fast-paced, dynamic, environment.
• Ability to work autonomously and within established guidelines, procedures, and practices.
• Committed to delivering high-quality results, customer focused, working with others to overcome challenges, and focusing on what matters.
• Continuously looking for opportunities to learn, build skills, and share knowledge with others.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Manufacturing Batch Record Design experience is highly desirable.
• Technical expertise in sterile pharmaceutical isolator technology, combination products and medical devices is highly desirable.
• Experience in Drug Enforcement Agency requirements for the handling and distribution of controlled substances is desired.