Pharma Veterans

OBITUARY – ALI RAZA ALVIE – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #751 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #751 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Ali Raza Alvie Ali Raza Alvie Ali Raza Alvie Mr. Ali Raza Alvie passed away on 27 January 2023 after a brief illness. He had turned 51 in January 2023.  Ali Raza was an extraordinary person, and worth knowing. He must be seen as a professional and as a person to get to know him. Ali Raza earned a degree in civil engineering from Arizona State University, and came back to join his father’s construction company, HAKAS Private Limited. After a short stint, he was assigned to Ali Medical Center business which he took over fully. Ali Medical is presently a highly regarded medical facility i

Red Tape in Private Corporates – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #750 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #750 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Monstera Photo Credit: Pavel Danilyuk Photo Credit: Vlada Karpovich Red tape, the symbol of bureaucracy comes in several forms in the corporates. I talked about ‘culture’ in the last post. Here, we see some more forms. Silos – are a common item in private corporates also. Silo forms when the Head of a Function decides that he, his function, and his team shall allow restricted access to other functions. This may not be required by the organization, or the situation therein, but it evolves from an attitude of asserting personal authority. What happens then go

Red Tape in Private Corporates – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #749 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #749 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Mikhail Nilov Photo Credit: Nothing Ahead Photo Credit: Pavel Danilyuk In my very younger days, the newspaper arrived very early morning and my father browsed through it before going to office, and we also looked at it. It used to be ‘Mashriq’ the Urdu newspaper, and for years, it remained the same. A very common complaint, objection, statement used to be about ‘surkh feeta’ or red tape. It was alleged to be the mother of all ills. It caused delays in decision making, it kept the matters pending for years, and it made the file moving between various departme

Chinese New Year 2023 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #748 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #748 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Angela Roma Photo Credit: Angela Roma Photo Credit: Furdi De Rivera Photo Credit: Hong Son Photo Credit: Luisa Fernanda Bayona Photo Credit: Zhu Yi Photo Credit: chinesenewyear.net Chinese New Year 2023 started on Sunday 22 January 2023.  HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL FRIENDS WHO CELEBRATE CHINESE  AND LUNAR NEW YEAR New Lunar is arguably the most important occasion for all people of Chinese origin, descent, and territories. Chinese New Year is celebrated by more than 20% population of the world – around 1.6 billion people. It is the most important holiday in China and for Chinese pe

New Gene Therapy Products – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #747 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #747 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Gilmer Diaz Estela Photo Credit: Thirdman Photo Credit: Tiger Lily Gene therapy is among the newest modalities of treatment. It is still an experimental treatment that works by introducing genetic material into a person’s cell to fight or prevent disease. Gene Therapy is presently being tested for several diseases, such as autoimmune disorders, hemophilia, thalassemia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and so on. Gene therapy drugs are to be given as a single dose, only once in life.  We continue to look at some more drugs. CARVYKTI (ciltacabt

New Gene Therapy Products – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #746 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #746 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Ivan Samkov Photo Credit: Google Images Gene therapy is among the newest modalities of treatment. It is still an experimental treatment that works by introducing genetic material into a person’s cell to fight or prevent disease. Gene Therapy is presently being tested for several diseases, such as autoimmune disorders, hemophilia, thalassemia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and so on. In this treatment, a gene can be delivered to a cell using a carrier called ‘vector’. Mostly, viruses are used as vectors due to their innate ability to penetr

Career Suggestions for Gen Z – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #745 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #745 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Ivan Samkov Photo Credit: MART Production Photo Credit: Polina Tankilevitch Photo Credit: SHVETS Production Generation Z are the people who are borne between 1997 and 2012, give or take couple of years. This is the most tech savvy generation because they grew up in the age of technology. They are very familiar and comfortable with gadgets and love to use these. Some of the Gen Z have already come into workforce and others are at stages of education where they need to decide about their career choices.  We continue with career options for Gen Z. Applications De

Career Suggestions for Gen Z – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #744 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #744 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Marcus Aurelius Photo Credit: Mikael Blomkvist Photo Credit: Artem Podrez Generation Z are the people who are borne between 1997 and 2012, give or take couple of years. This is the most tech savvy generation because they grew up in the age of technology. They are very familiar and comfortable with gadgets and love to use these. Some of the Gen Z have already come into workforce and others are at stages of education where they need to decide about their career choices.  Lot of research is being done on how and why Gen Z is different from Gen X, Y, but it would

Career Choices Dilemmas – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #743 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #743 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Amina Filkins Photo Credit: Jeff Denlea Photo Credit: Thirdman Let us start with the question, Do Young People Make Career Choices? The answer is mostly No. These are the scenarios which lead to the above answer. Aptitude Assessment Most youngsters do not know or at least do not know clearly as to what they wish to pursue as a career. The biggest reason for this gap is our curriculum which is taught from beginning to the college. The curriculum is a mix of many subjects none of which evokes curiosity or quest for knowledge. Children are being overloaded with unnecessary boo

Public and Private Sector Careers – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #742 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #742 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Photo Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Photo Credit: Antoni Shkraba Everyone, including myself, propagates that one should plan, monitor, and control her/his career. In the same breath, we say that one should stick to an organization to get recognized and upgraded. Then there are others who say it all depends on luck, nothing else. For the latter, no logic can be given though at times it seems that luck has prevailed over competence and performance. Given this uncertain situation, how can one gain control over career evolution? We shall examine these questions in this and the next cou