Marlborough resident helping to make drugs safer

By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer

Marlborough – Alison Serrano has always had a keen interest in healthcare and wanted to work for an organization that helped to improve people's lives in some way. To this end, she became involved with the nonprofit Needham-based Drug Safety Executive Council (DSEC), a peer-to-peer membership of 2,000 drug safety leaders who work toward the development of better and safer medicines worldwide.

Serrano, who resides in Marlborough, joined the DSEC (and Cambridge Healthtech Associates) as a Marketing Manager in September 2009. She helps produce member events and serves as content manager of the website (www.drugsafetycouncil.org). Serrano came to the DSEC with a bachelor's degree in English from Marist College and more than ten years of experience in marketing and content development in healthcare, software and the pharmaceutical industries.

The Drug Safety Executive Council is one of two online communities of practice organized by Cambridge Healthtech Associates, a firm that uses its unique collaborative model to improve the speed, economics and effectiveness of life science research and development.

The biggest challenge facing the DSEC is helping to drive down the cost of drugs and to help the industry find more efficient methods to identify potential issues with a drug earlier in the development process. This leads to safer medicines on pharmacy shelves and helps pharmaceutical companies focus their research and development efforts on the most promising drugs.

“It is great to be a part of an organization that is actively working to improve the safety of new medications. There have been a number of recalls of prominent drugs in recent years and it is extremely rewarding to be part of improving the quality and safety pipeline of new medications,” Serrano said.

Serrano is doing her part to ensure the safety of the medicines that hit the market.

“Although I's not a scientist,” she said, “I can still contribute to a solution to the cause of developing better medicines.”

For more information on the DSEC visit them at http://www.drugsafetycouncil.org/index.cfm.