There are no nutty scientists in sight. No one is bent over a test tube. There are not even any pipettes or petri dishes. There are no flaming bunsen burners or shuffling white mice. There is only Diarmuid Herlihy from Kilkenny - in a white coat, white shoes and white cap.
Pharmacy today is not what we might imagine. Stand forward, Mr Pharmacist, in a pristine, clean-room environment of stainless steel and computerised equipment. All around there are granulators, blenders, fluid bed dryers and coating machines. This is a state-ofthe-art laboratory in a cutting-edge pharmaceutical plant.
Herlihy works in the manufacturing section of the new Pfizer plant in Ringaskiddy. No, he is not involved in producing Viagra tablets. He is involved in making a cholesterol-reducing drug for the world market. This is his pre-registration year.
Herlihy hopes to qualify as a pharmacist at the end of next year. He currently works under the guidance of a pharmacist who acts as his tutor.
He graduated from Trinity College Dublin last month, with 63 classmates. He earned an honours degree. "I was interested in health care and working in industry," he says. Most newly graduated pharmacists choose to work in the community in a pharmacy to gain experience. He is currently involved in carrying out "representative identity sampling", which involves sampling both the raw material and the finished product.
"It's a new plant," he explains, which has passed its regulatory inspections. The objective now is to make sure that everything is streamlined, running smoothly and efficiently. He has to help compile training manuals which will be aimed at improving the workflow and the efficiency also. He started work in Ringaskiddy in September. There was much to learn at the start. "You feel a bit lost. It's a steep learning curve, but you pick it up fairly quickly. I've been given projects to do and I was helping to prepare for regulatory inspections."
Looking back over his four years in TCD, he says it wasn't all work and study. He was "very much involved in the hurling club", he explains. He liked science in school but mostly his interest in working with the public drew him into a career in pharmacy. "I got my chemistry set when I was young but it was put away," he recalls with a smile.
However, he spoke to a number of pharmacists working in Kilkenny city during his Leaving Cert year in 1996 in the CBS. "It was never a vocation. In sixth year I spoke to one or two people and they encouraged me into it."
First year in college was "a really a general grounding in science and then in the later years it got more specific. You spend about half your time in the lab." There is plenty of theoretical material.
He chose industry because "it's exciting, this is where it all starts - in the manufacturing area. I wanted to see what options were and to see what it was all about. I wasn't sure what a pharmacist could do in industry."
After six months in Cork, he will spend six months in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, working in a chemist in the town in order to complete his work experience.
He noticed a difference between the Irish approach to the pharmaceutical business and the US approach during a summer he spent working in a drug store in Santa Cruz, California. "They sold everything from drugs to bicycle tyres in the shop. It's a much better set-up over here," he says. "We have more responsibility and there's more interaction with the public."
