Managing Risk in Pharmaceuticals Company - Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group

1. INTRODUCTION
Risk Management refers as the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks
followed by economical and interconnected execution of resources in order to reduce, monitor and
control the probability or influence of unfortunate events (Bodnar and et. al., 2011). In this report,
the given organisation is Genera which is a part of Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group. The
company is engaged in production, research and development, marketing and sales of feed
additives, veterinary medicines and variety of care products for animals. This report includes
hazards exist in pharmaceuticals company and the risks associated with those. A risk register and
risk matrix are developed and risk assessment plan is analysed to minimize errors and mitigate
risks. At last, role of technology in reducing errors and efficiency of risk assessment plan is
evaluate in the report.
Hazards can be defined as the agent which has the potential or ability to harm or danger to
a vulnerable target (Bruder and Roncalli, 2012). These will lead to an adverse consequence if
someone is expose to it. Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group is an England based veterinary
products manufacturing company that offers variety of feed additives, medicines and care
products for animals. It employs around 220 employees, of whom approximately 75 percent are
women who are working in quality control, production and research and development laboratories.
Risk Management Process
This process is about managing the risks associated with the project. It helps in mitigating
the adverse outcomes of the main goals and objectives so that opportunities can be created. It
helps in developing policies and procedures which can be applied to reduce the magnitude of
risks. There are number of stages such as identification, analysis, evaluation of the risks, treating
them with appropriate solution followed by reviewing the risks.
As the company engaged in using large amount of chemicals in the production process, it creates
some hazards for its employees. These hazards are mentioned below:
Chemical Hazards: In context of Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group, it uses chemicals in
manufacturing of medicinal products that cause harm to employees as well as environment (Chen
and Yano, 2010). For example: Ethidium bromide which is a highly hazardous compound that may
have teratogenic or carcinogenic impacts. Exposure to this compound is possible by ingestion,
inhalation or absorption by skin. Exposure to acute ethidium bromide may cause irritation on
exposed surfaces like eyes, mouth, skin or upper respiratory tract. Apart from this, flammable and
volatile liquids used in organisation are vaporize when these exposed to room temperature, this
cause atmospheric pollution. The explosions and fire accidents can occur due to steam of
chemicals which tend to disperse rapidly in environment that cause negative impacts in terms of
loss of lives and property. The people who will be affected by such chemical hazards are the
employees and customers to a major extent. This is ultimately have a significant effect on the
government.

Health Hazards: As the company is using chemicals in large amount, it creates health
hazards for its employees. The properties present in chemicals influence adversely on health of
people working in pharmaceutical company. Direct exposure to chemicals causes various health
issues for employees which may be long or short term (Franch Gutiérrez and et.al., 2013). These
issues can be related to skin irritation, asthma, headache, cancer, nerve damage, dermatitis etc.
Careful handling of chemicals is very necessary within Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group as a
minor mistake may leads to major adverse impact on health of workforce. As more numbers of
women are employed within organisation, some chemical may impact their health along with their
baby's health if they are in pregnancy.
Risk Matrix: This matrix is used at the time of risk assessment in order to define the risk
level by taken into consideration the category of likelihood or probability against the consequence
severity category (Gibson, 2014). This matrix helps management of Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC
Group to increase the risk visibility and taking appropriate decisions.
Risk register is characterised as a tool for documenting and managing risks. The main
purpose of preparing risk register in Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group is to provide managers
with list of identified risks so that appropriate actions can be taken to mitigate those risks
(Goldberg and Palladini, 2010). The risk register for company is mentioned below:
Risk
descriptio
n
Likelih
ood of
occurr
ence
of risk
Impac
t if
risk
occur
s
Severi
ty
Owner Consequenc
e
Mitigating action
Occupation
al exposure
to harmful
agent
Mediu
m
High High Safety
Manager
The
consequence
associated
with this risk
includes
adverse
impact on
health of
workers
working
within firm.
Periodical review of
health and safety
system of organisation
and improvement in
technical safety
measures.
Legal and
regulatory
risk
Mediu
m
High High Manage
ment
Its
consequence
s include
Compliance with all the
laws and regulations
made by government.

changes in
production
system and
processes.
Providing training and
awareness
programmes to
employees (Smith,
Merna and Jobling,
2014).
Substitute
product
Low Mediu
m
Mediu
m
Producti
on
Manager
If the drug
has harmful
effect on
health of an
individual and
another
company
provides is
substitution
that impacts
less on their
health then it
creates risk
for company.
Substitution of
dangerous substances
with less dangerous
substances
Risk assessment plan refers to the document, which is prepared to foresee risk, determine
influence and define consequence to risks. This helps managers in determining a potential risk
and assessing their impact. The risk assessment plan for Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC Group
helps manager in identifying risk as well as their impact which helps management in taking
appropriate decisions for reducing the errors and mitigating risk. The risk assessment and
management plan help company in ensuring efficient and consistent operations by ensuring the
compliance with laws and regulations (Gurnani, Mehrotra and Ray, 2012). This helps in
emphasizing more on safety and security of employees. The mitigation actions used by Dechra
Pharmaceuticals PLC Group helps in minimizing the errors and mitigating a risk. Periodical review
of health and safety system helps in determining the areas that needs improvements so that
appropriate measures can be taken to promote health and safety of workforce within firm. The
decision of company regarding changing the procedure that utilize harmful substances helps in
minimising the occupational exposure to harmful agents. Improved technical safety measures
resulted in central weighing room which is new and equipped with state-of-the-art system of
ventilation and high efficiency particulate air filter laminar flow cabinets for weighing the chemicals