Background: The Senior Pharmaceutical Officer is responsible for overseeing the efficient, safe, and effective delivery of pharmaceutical services. This role includes supervising the preparation and dispensing of medications, ensuring compliance with regulations, managing pharmacy operations, providing expert advice to healthcare professionals, and contributing to the development of pharmaceutical policies and protocols. He shall be responsible for quality assurance of all pharmaceutical products in the country programs and act the bridge between Supply Chain and the Health Unit. He will participate in the definition of strategies for supply chain management, distribution and use of medical products and donations in the programs in line with the health department’s recommendations and policies whilst ensuring national regulations are followed. This position is the link with external actors/partners concerning pharmaceutical issues. This position reports to the Health Coordinator with a dotted line to Supply Chain Coordinator. The Pharma Senior Officer also works in close collaboration with warehouse teams, pharmacists, health partners, and operational support teams.
 Responsibilities and main tasks:

 Manage and arrange to procure all pharma and pharma related products and managing donation, distribution, oversee the medical drugs and supplies quantification and ensures that all procured items are in the CP Essential Drug List aligned with MOH protocols and procedures.He will ensure drug consumption data is collected at health facilities, aggregated, analyzed and used for forecasting needs of the program.Monitors the availability of medical products to avoid stock-outs and financial losses generated by expired items; Collaborates with the Health Manager/s to define stock security levels in IRC’s directly implemented facilities. (sending Inventory summary and item with expiry date on regular basis)In close collaboration with the Warehouse officer(s), develops stock levels alert (based on an average monthly consumption AMC and morbidity data); gathers stock indicators, analyzes them and discuss with the Health Coordinator / Supply Chain coordinator so as to avoid stock-outs and the financial losses generated by expired items. Ensure proper documentation for all pharmaceutical transactions and audits.Contribute to budget planning and resource management to ensure cost-effective pharmaceutical operations.Provides input for international and local orders draws up the first draft of orders with the Health Coordinator, reviews the parameters involved in replenishing stock, finalizes orders based on consumption and future needs arising from the developments in the fieldParticipates in defining strategies for supply, management, distribution and use of medical products in line with IRC’s recommendations and policies; under the supervision of theHealth Coordinator and in collaboration with Health and Supply Chain Managers, support development/use of new pharmaceutical stock management systems and software.Participate in implementing the pharmaceutical supply chain standard operating procedures, technically managing other pharmacist staff at the field providing support & guidance on their professional development and performance. And conduct filed visit regularly under ALL projects.Applies Good Distribution Practices (GDPs) for pharmaceutical products at storage level, and Good Dispensing Practices in end user units. These include:Documentation verification: Conduct systematic checks of all medical goods purchased locally and for direct shipments, and control their details correspond to the requested specifications and the received documentation (Certificate of Analyses)Check the conformity of the received goods with the PO (Purchase Order) and the PL (Packing List) (strength, origin, manufacturer, batch number)Transportation and storage: Ensure transportation of medical goods (including any dangerous goods and cold chain) is done in an appropriate manner and following national regulations.Conduct GDP self-assessment for the central warehouses with the assistance of GSC Pharma QA Manager and follows up on Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) implementation.Handle cold chain products according to the recommendations of the manufacturerEnsure that cold chain equipment is working properly, and that daily temperature monitoring of cold chain items is in place Report to GSC Pharma QA Manager any cold chain breach (fills the cold chain breech report), who will advise on releasing the productsEnsure that appropriate storage conditions are in place for medicines (including dangerous goods products) and advise any need for improvementsEnsure controlled drugs are managed according to national regulationEnsure stock rotation according to FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out)Support in conducting monthly and annual physical stock countsQuality assurance of commodities: Ensure with the support of HQ that all donations offered by any partner or others follow the IRC Quality Assurance Policy and IRC Donations SOP.Follow up any claim reports from the field concerning quality (IRC Complaint Form) with the GSC Pharma QA Manager and maintain a file with all claims.Investigate and put in quarantine any medical product that has been identified as suspect - meaning that it may be counterfeit, unapproved, or potentially dangerous.Perform any other tasks or responsibilities as requested by the supervisor to support the smooth operation of the pharmacy department and the organization’s objectives.