AMTRA top students rewarded

The top students from the 2006 Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority manufacturers’ examinations have been rewarded for their achievements.

Top in the April 2006 examination was Patrick Garland of Alpharma Animal Health with Michelle Burfoot of Merial Animal Health as runner-up.

Winner of the June 2006 award was Christopher White, formerly of Boehringer Ingelheim. And the September 2006 winner was William Sherrard from Pfizer Animal Health with Jonathan Perkins from Intervet UK Ltd as runner-up. They received their awards from Ben Fogle at the Annual Dinner of the National Office of Animal Health, on 18 April 2007, in London.

As part of NOAH’s commitment to industry self-regulation, all manufacturers’ representatives are required to register with AMTRA and pass the AMTRA manufacturers’ examination, to guarantee that the highest quality advice is given to all prescribers, suppliers and users of animal medicines. There is a training manual to assist students, regularly updated, which is relevant to all classes of medicines for large and companion animal use.

To acknowledge the hard work needed to gain the manufacturers’ qualification, each year NOAH sponsors prizes for the highest scoring entrants in these examinations.

NOAH chief executive Phil Sketchley said: “Once again these AMTRA students have achieved excellent standards in what is a high level academically recognised qualification. Their hard work is a credit to themselves, their companies and the animal health industry. The AMTRA qualifications are designed to ensure that the highest standards of training, education and professional conduct are upheld, right across the whole spectrum of animal medicine distribution.”

Ends

18 April 2007

Notes for Editors

1. For further information contact: NOAH - Phil Sketchley or Alison Glennon on 020 8367 3131, or e-mail noah@noah.co.uk or visit the NOAH website www.noah.co.uk; AMTRA - Mrs Winn Dawson on 01394 411010, or e-mail info@amtra.org.uk or visit the AMTRA website www.amtra.org.uk

2. Short biographies are included. Call Alison Glennon or Joanne Jeffs at NOAH on 020 8367 3131 for an electronic photograph. Patrick Garland was not present at the dinner.

3. About AMTRA

As well as being the qualification body for the Animal Medicine Manufacturers’ Sales Staff Register, AMTRA is the only body recognised by the Secretary of State under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations to register Suitably Qualified Persons (SQPs). SQPs are permitted to prescribe and supply POM-VPS medicines, and to supply NFA-VPS medicines, provided the statutory criteria are met.

AMTRA sets the standards of training and qualification for SQPs; by the end of the current transition period in October 2008 ALL SQPs then on the AMTRA Register will have passed an examination.

SQPs are required to abide by the DEFRA Code of Practice, and AMTRA has an agreement with AMI (part of VMD) for AMI inspectors to report to AMTRA any breaches of the Law or Code by its SQPs.

There are currently 4 types of SQP: R & E types are subdivided with more than one prefix.

R-SQPs – can prescribe and supply ALL POM-VPS medicines and supply all NFA-VPS medicines: • QR prefix – fully qualified • XR prefix – must take a conversion examination prior to October 2008 • R prefix – will leave the SQP Register on or before 1 October 2008

E-SQPs – can prescribe and supply POM-VPS and supply all NFA-VPS medicines for equines and companion animals: • QE prefix – fully qualified • XE prefix – must take conversion examination prior to October 2008 • E prefix – will leave SQP Register on or before 1 October 2008

J-SQPs – can prescribe and supply POM-VPS and supply NFA-VPS medicines for equines only. • QJ prefix – fully qualified

C-SQPs – can supply NFA-VPS medicines for companion animals only • QC prefix – fully qualified

Details of courses to enable persons to train and qualify as SQPs are set out on the AMTRA website www.amtra.org.uk.

4. The National Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent UK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animal health products. The association has 31 corporate members and 10 associate members. In 2006 the NOAH sales survey showed a total market of £373.2m, around 90% of the total UK market.

Prizewinners’ biographies

April 2006

Winner – Patrick Garland, Alpharma Animal Health

Graduated from Nottingham University in 1982 with a degree in Animal Sciences and spent the following 22 years in the animal feed industry with Pauls Agriculture and then BOCM PAULS as a nutritionist specialising in commercial poultry.

In 2005 he joined Alpharma Animal Health as National Sales Manager - Poultry, in this role he is responsible for the sales of the Alpharma range of products to poultry integrators, feed manufacturers and veterinary surgeons of in feed coccidiostats, therapeutics and non antibiotic feed ingredient as well as water soluble veterinary medicines. He has sole responsibility for the poultry activity of Alpharma in the UK and Eire.

Interest outside work include field sports, dog walking, DIY, LandRovers and supporting village activities where he lives in Suffolk.

Runner-up – Michelle Burfoot, Merial Animal Health

Michelle began her career working as a groom and riding instructor. In 1996 she decided to further her studies and went to DeMontfort University, Lincoln to study a BSc in Equine Science.

After graduating she worked at PetPlan Equine as an Equine Claims Assessor, a job she thoroughly enjoyed. Michelle left PetPlan to relocate back to the southwest and started working for Animalcare where she was employed for 4 years as a territory representative and latterly a Regional Supervisor. Animalcare gave her an excellent grounding into the world of sales and taught her everything to know about the Veterinary Industry and sales!! Michelle moved onto Merial 2 years ago firstly within the companion animal team and currently working as part of the dedicated equine team that was set up last year. She greatly enjoys being a part of a small (there is only 3 of them!!) close knit team and they are lucky enough to have some excellent technically advanced products in their portfolio. When Michelle is not racing around the south of the UK for Merial she competes on her two horses. She has a youngster which she is bringing on which she hopes will take her Eventing and Hunting and an older TB that she dabbles in Endurance with.

June 2006

Winner – Christopher White, formerly of Boehringer Ingelheim

Christopher recently worked for Boehringer Ingelheim as part of their field force selling small animal, equine and large animal pharmaceuticals. He held this position for over 2 years, before recently starting employment with Schering-Plough as a Brand Manager for the Diabetes range - Insuvet. This position allows him to utilise his Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications, which he gained following his time at university studying a degree in animal sciences, strongly biased towards equine studies.

He presently lives in Guildford, commuting to Uxbridge on a daily basis. In his spare time he enjoys playing football and tennis, and teaching himself to play the guitar. This stems from a strong interest in buying and listening to music.

September 2006

Winner – William Sherrard, Pfizer Animal Health

William currently works for Pfizer Animal Health as an Area Veterinary Manager covering Northern Ireland and Isle of Man. He has worked for Pfizer for three and a half years on the livestock side of the business and provides product support plus advice to vets and their farm clients regarding disease management strategies on mastitis, infertility and calf pneumonia.

Prior to joining Pfizer he worked for 9 years in a mixed practice in N Ireland. He was born and brought up near Coleraine and come from a beef and sheep farming background.

As a hobby he breeds pedigree limousin cattle. He is married to Judith and has two children Jonathan aged 9yrs and David aged 6 years.

Runner-up – Jonathan Perkins, Intervet UK Ltd

A graduate from Harper Adams, Jonathan has spent the last two years as a key account manager with Intervet’s Poultry Business Unit, providing sales and technical support in (area). He also edits Intervet’s industry update – Poultry Focus.

Jonathan’s National Diploma in Poultry Production has been put to good use, since his entire career since leaving college in 1989 has been in the poultry industry, working his way up the career ladder from a feed and breed trials officer to his current position with the UK’s biggest poultry vaccine supplier.

Most of Jonathan’s spare time is devoted to looking after his three sons, fishing and the odd game of badminton. He also reluctantly admits to supporting Leeds United, but is less than impressed with their recent lack of form and impending demotion!