Terminology specialist and Substance specialist

Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) advances the science of pharmacovigilance and inspires patient safety initiatives all over the world. As an independent, non-profit foundation, we engage stakeholders who share our vision of a world where patients and health providers make wise therapeutic decisions in their use of medicines. As a leader in the research and development of new scientific methods, we explore the benefits and harms of medicines for patients, and offer products and services used by health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. For more than 40 years, we have provided scientific leadership and operational support to the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring.

What will you do
We are looking for two terminology specialists, one of whom will have an extended responsibility as a substance specialist. As a terminology specialist you will be a part of the WHODrug Content Management and Support team within the Service and Solution department.

The team is made up of health professionals with advanced education in the science of pharmacy and who support developments and maintenance of the WHODrug portfolio. They ensure the highest quality standards to fulfil compliance with regulations, customer expectations and useful information management, in close cooperation with the WHODrug Portfolio management. The team is also involved in the development of processes and systems regarding generation of Pharmaceutical product ID (PHPID) and Global substance ID following the ISO Identification of medicinal products (IDMP) standards.

Your main responsibilities as a terminology specialist are to

- validate and classify drug information to ensure the completeness, accuracy and consistency of the data so that it meets the quality standards expected for WHODrug Coding of reported drugs in individual case safety reports
- support WHODrug users with specific customer requests for new drugs
- take part in improvements of ways of working

Further on in your employment you will get the opportunity to participate in the maintenance of WHODrug related products, another aspect of the team´s responsibilities.

For the position of Substance Specialist, you will also:

- investigate and match substance requests to current dictionary information
- contribute with substance and pharmacology knowledge in improvement projects and ongoing dictionary developments
- research new substances for addition to WHODrug Global
- classify substances according to ATC and/or other classification systems

Who you are
You have an MSc in Pharmacy, a broad knowledge of medicinal products, as well as excellent written and oral skills in English.

It is an advantage if you also have:

- knowledge of WHODrug, classification of medical products including ATC classification
- knowledge of herbal medicine
- good written and oral Swedish
- knowledge of other languages is also useful

As a person you are

- self-driven, and can work independently according to our operational framework
- attentive to detail and to the customer's needs
- able to contribute to a creative and positive working environment
- helpful, willing to share knowledge, and collaborate well with others in the team and in other departments within UMC
- able to communicate professionally by phone and email.

If you are interested in working as a Substance specialist, we are looking for someone who also

- uses a structured approach, who has the ability to apply pharmacological knowledge and experience in critical thinking and problem-solving
- has an interest in working with global drug and substance information and classifying substances and drug data
- has knowledge/experience from working with one or all of the following: medicinal chemistry, advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) and/or biological drugs or similar in academia or industry
- has knowledge of the ISO IDMP standards


Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is a centre for international service and scientific research in the field of pharmacovigilance. We are the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, and manage the technical and operational aspects of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring since 1978.

As an independent, non-profit foundation, we support the World Health Organization, regulatory authorities, and other stakeholders who share our vision of advancing medicines safety. Through research and development of new scientific methods, we explore the benefits and harms of medicines for patients, and offer products and services used by health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

UMC follows the collective agreements between the Swedish Agency for Government Employers and Saco-S and ST. Union representatives are Malin Zaar (Saco-S) and Jessica Avasol (ST), +46 (0)18-65 60 60.