Anthony Agnew

Job Title: Formulation Scientist

Company: Mayne Pharma Pty Ltd

City of Residence: Melbourne

Degree: Chemistry Degree Bachelor of Formulation Science (Hons), Victorian College of Pharmacy , Monash University

As a Formulation Scientist, my role involves communicating with other scientists, section leaders, market and technical managers, and consulting with both raw material suppliers and customers to create new product formulations. Working to a specified budget and timeline, I need to research, formulate and test many sample formulations, to ensure we achieve a formulation with the optimum efficacy, stability and quality, whilst complying with the stringent standards set by the industry authorities.

My role also involves the reformulation of existing products to improve their performance, reduce costs or to comply with the requirements of new/updated standards. There is also a service role to ensure the quality of batches manufactured complies with the relative industry standards, as well as providing technical assistance for our customers.

At Mayne Pharma, I am working with numerous teams of scientists, specialising in the research and development of injectable drug formulations for the treatment of cancer (oncology) and infectious diseases. In previous companies, I have developed various formulations from specialised aircraft cleaners, touch-free automotive wash, coal dust suppressants in mining, carpet sanitizers and spot-stain removers, waterless hand cleansers to launching an entire line of home & hardware products. It's very interesting, the variety of formulations I get to work on; there are always new formulations to work with, new ideas to explore and the chance to apply what I have learnt from the course and from my previous work experiences.

I chose the course because I have always found the idea of creating products out of various chemicals to be fascinating, and even more so, to be able to control and manipulate these formulations by altering their chemical composition.

The career prospects at the end of the course are immense; it covers the theory and gives practical hands-on experience in many chemical/science based industries.

There is still a lot to learn, but eventually I would like to be a Project Manager, leading a team of experts to oversee the development of unique and innovative formulations from ideas, to fully commercialized products.

Go to the Victorian College of Pharmacy