Lisa Tan Joins GPhA | Downtown Moves

A former Food and Drug Administration official has joined the Generic Pharmaceutical Association to strengthen the partnership between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry.
Felecia (Lisa) Tan will now serve as associate vice president for science and regulatory affairs at GPhA. Tan said in a recent phone interview that she will work “to enhance the existing bridging and collaborative efforts between the industry and the agency.”
“We are delighted that Lisa Tan has joined the GPhA staff,” GPhA CEO Ralph G. Neas said in a statement. “Her hiring demonstrates our continued commitment to making collaboration with FDA a key priority.” Tan was most recently the regulatory project manager at the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs. In that capacity, she helped implement the 2012 generic drug user fee amendments.
Those amendments require manufacturers to pay fees to assist with the cost of reviewing generic drug applications and inspecting manufacturing facilities.
Joining GPhA, which represents generic drug manufacturers and distributors, “would be a good learning point to get an industry perspective of the implementation of a lot of the user fee amendments that are in effect,” Tan said.
Jumping into a new role in the pharmaceutical industry is not a new concept for Tan. “Throughout my career I’ve always been in a learning phase, so I pretty much went into different areas of pharmacy,” she said.
Tan worked in retail, in a hospital and in long-term care before joining the FDA. She earned a pharmacy degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, but she admitted, “My parents told me I had to go to pharmacy school.”
“I think the rationale behind that was they just wanted their daughter to go into a medical background.” Tan said she had a list of potential career choices that included pharmaceuticals. Her parents had a friend whose daughter graduated from pharmacy school and was successful, so they encouraged Tan to go to pursue a pharmacy degree.
“So here I am,” Tan said.
Tan added that she is excited about her new role at GPhA and will bring “familiarity with the regulatory process and the interpretation of it” to the organization. She said she is “hoping that the acquired knowledge within the FDA will translate and assist with GPhA’s goals.”