'Regulatory is always there to steer them back in the correct lane'

Despina Vasiliou is a regulatory affairs manager at Innovaderm Research living in Montreal, Canada. She joined us at RAPS Convergence 2022 for a chat about her career path, her thoughts on the regulatory profession and more. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. 

How did you get into regulatory affairs?

I started off in regulatory affairs, actually, by accident. I had graduated university with my bachelor’s in science. When you are studying in sciences and you ask your teachers and colleagues and people that you just go to school with, “What can you do with a science degree?” They tell you the generic answer. They tell you you can do anything.

But when you question them and you say, well, “What's anything?” That's where it's a little bit point blank. So, I had graduated and gone into customer service in the pharmaceutical field. And then from there I got to see the different positions in the company. I saw that there was an opening in regulatory, and then I just applied. And from there, well, that’s history.

What is your current role and what does it entail?

I'm currently a regulatory affairs manager, and my day-to-day is providing support for my team. I have nine employees underneath me and the day-to-day is just literally answering questions left, right and center. It's a lot from my team and also from other departments where they need support in regulatory matters. 

Why is regulatory affairs important?

I would say regulatory affairs is very, very important because I see us as the people that make the companies stay in the lines. A lot of departments like to test the boundaries of regulations and what they can and can't do, and regulatory is always there to steer them back in the correct lane. 

How did you become a RAPS member?

When I first got into regulatory affairs, my first position was an assistant. I liked the profession so much and I really liked what I was doing. I wanted to see how I could further my career and what was really out there to help me get the knowledge and the education I needed. Good old Dr. Google helped me out in that instance. I googled “regulatory affairs” and I found my way to the RAPS website. 

What do you get out of your RAPS membership?

I feel like I get the first look or the first notification into the latest things in the regulatory affairs world. We get constant emails about new guidances or new things that are going on into the world. I just feel like it's very beneficial in that aspect because we can't really rely on getting notifications from the health authorities. Those come, you know, not as often. And also it just provides a really, really good place for me to speak to other regulatory professionals so I can get their knowledge and their feedback and also their help when I'm stuck on situations or issues.

Learn more about RAPS membership here.

What’s your experience been like at RAPS Convergence 2022?

This is my first Convergence and I really didn't know what to expect. In fact, I was a little bit scared because my company sent me by myself. You know, it's kind of like high school again. Are you going to have friends? Are you going to sit alone at the table and eat? That wasn't like that at all. Everybody here is super, super friendly.  I didn't feel alone. And one thing I learned a lot, and it's actually one thing I wanted to progress on, was regulatory intelligence. Convergence gave me a lot of tools and a lot of knowledge in that aspect. I also purchased one of the textbooks from the bookstore that I'm really going to bring back. My director and I are going to sit down and go through and really create an internalized regulatory intelligence tool to help our department grow.