Meet the Expert: Maurice Weijers

Our “Meet the Expert” series introduces you to our team of experts around the world. This “behind the curtain” view will help you get to know who we are on a professional and personal level, and highlight how our colleagues work together on our higher purpose to improve patient health and safety throughout the complete product lifecycle.

Meet the Expert: Maurice Weijers, Senior Consultant, Product Lifecycle Management
Located in: Leiden, The Netherlands

What do you do at ProPharma Group?

As a Senior Consultant in the Product Lifecycle Management department, I manage complex manufacturing projects to successful and timely decision points for products under development. I’m currently involved in tech transfers of manufacturing processes and analytical methods between different CMOs.

What do you like best about working with clients?

I like to play a key role in having experts from clients and ProPharma Group working together as one team in a stimulating environment. It is very rewarding for me to have people with different cultural backgrounds working together as a fine-tuned team. Next to that, working with clients also provides a great opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences.

Describe the biggest challenge facing our clients today. 

In the last couple of years/decade, there is an almost exponential increase in startups, especially biotech companies. These companies might have very promising molecules and/or therapies in their pipelines, but lack resources, expertise, and experience to bring these products successfully to the market. They often hire people from big pharma with a ditto mindset which is not to scale to most small pharmaceutical companies. This often results in failure or delayed market entrance. Our experts in the Product Lifecycle Management department are very capable of guiding these startups through the (early) development process and help them in preventing common mistakes and pitfalls.

How do you support ProPharma Group’s mission and higher purpose of improving the health and safety of patients?

I facilitate the development of safe and effective medicines. For patients, it is critical to have access to effective and safe medicines. As a Project Manager I support clients in bringing their products to the market in the shortest possible timeframe, with the highest quality and within budget. As an example, one of our customers experienced serious supply issues during the pandemic. As a result, they decided to source everything locally to be more independent of global supply. I support them with tech transfers to the local sites in Europe.

Tell us a little bit about yourself outside of work.

I live together with my wife in Wijchen, a small village close to Nijmegen in the eastern part of The Netherlands. My biggest passion is flying. I have a Private Pilot License to fly single engine planes. My greatest flying adventure was a cross-country trip in the US from San Diego to Boston in a Cessna 182 with some fellow pilots. My other passions are cycling and having diner and drinks with friends and family.

What’s one thing you’d like for potential clients to know about ProPharma Group?

Every client is valuable to us. Small companies might be hesitant to approach us, as we are by now one of the largest consultancy companies in the world. There is however no distinction in our service and dedication, whether you are a (very) small startup company or a well-established pharmaceutical company. One big advantage is that we have all relevant expertise in-house. ProPharma Group can offer a very extensive service package, comprising the full drug development chain. On the other hand, we also offer tailor-made solutions for small projects that might be more suitable for smaller companies.