Biological Assessor in the Biologicals Section
| Posting date: | 25 June 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £59,900 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 21 July 2025 |
| Location: | KT15 3LS |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 409405/1 |
Summary
You may not have heard of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), but have you ever:
- eaten meat, eggs, fish or honey
- drunk milk
- owned a pet or animal
- taken antibiotics
If you said yes to any of the above, you are directly affected by what the VMD does.
The VMD is the regulatory and policy lead responsible for issues concerning the authorisation, use, and manufacture of veterinary medicines in the UK.
Our aim is to protect public health, animal health, and the environment, and promote animal welfare by assuring the safety, quality and effectiveness of veterinary medicines.
Find out more at: About us - Veterinary Medicines Directorate - GOV.UK
These exciting and interesting jobs put you at the heart of the important work of the VMD’s Biologicals Section and the authorisation in the UK of biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products, including vaccines and novel therapy veterinary medicinal products.
Your primary role will be to assess data submitted by pharmaceutical companies in support of their applications for new marketing authorisations of veterinary medicines, variations of existing authorisations, and animal test certificates to conduct clinical field trials.
You will work within a peer-reviewed environment and contribute to ensuring we make robust and transparent decisions based on scientific evidence. Your work plays a major part in assuring the quality, safety and efficacy, and availability of these veterinary medicines in the UK, and significantly contributes to the VMD meeting its public standards.
We will also expect you to maintain an awareness of scientific developments in the field of biological medicines and be proactive in the development and review of scientific and regulatory guidelines which support the quality, safety and efficacy requirements and act as an aid to the pharmaceutical industry and the development of medicines.
The field of biological veterinary medicines is a rapidly developing area and you will need to feel comfortable with the scientific and regulatory challenges that come with authorisation of novel medicines.
The VMD is a leading regulator of veterinary medicines and has an active international profile and you will be expected to contribute your expertise towards maintaining UK market appeal for veterinary medicines and aid future collaboration with other international regulators.
You will be responsible for the assessment of quality, safety and efficacy data and benefit:risk of applications for:
- new marketing authorisations for biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products including veterinary vaccines and novel therapy veterinary medicinal products.
- variations to existing marketing authorisations.
- animal test certificates to conduct clinical field trials.
You will also provide expertise within the biological/immunological veterinary medicine areas, including:
- reviewing the scientific and regulatory guidelines and framework for biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products.
- supporting VMD’s activities relating to availability of veterinary vaccines.
- supporting the delivery of the VMD’s Regulatory Science Strategy.
- activities related to the international work of VMD.
Your main duties will be to:
- scientifically assess quality, safety and efficacy data for marketing authorisations, animal test certificates and variations for biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products including veterinary vaccines and novel therapy medicinal products.
- undertake a detailed evaluation of the data and, in liaison with other assessors, formulate a recommendation to accept or refuse the application, based on the benefits and risks you identify during the assessment.
- prepare and peer review written assessment reports.
- present assessment reports to UK and international scientific committees.
- advise applicants on technical aspects of potential applications.
- deal with enquiries and represent the Biologicals Section at meetings with internal and external stakeholders.
- provide technical input relating to ensuring availability of biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products.
- maintain awareness of current developments, legislation and guidance affecting biological/immunological veterinary medicines within national and international context.
- contribute to development of scientific and regulatory industry guidance for biological/immunological veterinary medicinal products.
- advise Defra and outside organisations, including logistics to ensure the availability of biological/immunological veterinary medicines.
- collaborate with members of the Authorisations Division to achieve the Division’s overall objectives.
- contribute to wider VMD initiatives, such as training and development, publicity programmes, vaccine availability and international work programmes.
- contribute to capability within the Biologicals Section through provision of relevant training.
- develop junior assessors in the team.
- comply with ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 27001 (information security) standards, and GDPR and record management requirements.
- act corporately – meeting, role-modelling, embedding, and championing the corporate objectives set by the VMD.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme