Georgina Ferry interviews Omar El Muhanna, Senior Operations Manager (Clinical BioManufacturing Facility), 2 February 2023.
Topics discussed include (00:00:39) studies in Engineering, Executive MBA from Northwestern University, work in retail, construction, particularly on projects in the Middle East, involvement in the humanitarian response to the civil war in Syria, humanitarian aid including moving resources and people; (00:07:03) move to Oxford in November 2019, work with Cath Green at the Clinical BioManufacturing Facility (CBF) from January 2020; (00:13:20) first awareness of COVID-19; (00:14:45) meeting with Cath Green and Sarah Gilbert in January 2020; (00:18:15) first steps taken to change operations to pivot towards a focus on COVID-19, including early discussions with the Senior Qualified Person, Dr Eleanor Berrie and Dr Richard Tarrant; (00:24:55) work on business continuity, emergency preparation and disaster recovery plans; (00:32:24) opportunity to implement knowledge in the context of a serious emergency response; (00:34:50) challenges faced when implementing the programme; (00:39:45) issues around shipments in March 2020; (00:44:39) charter plane hire to ship vaccine material to Italy; (00:53:58) interactions with AstraZeneca; (01:00:43) finalising of the manufacturing work undertaken at the CBF and shift of priorities and workload; (01:09:20) work started after COVID phase, including a pivot back towards work on Ebola, process of manufacturing expansion; (01:11:20) position of the CBF under the Pandemic Sciences Institute, including capacity expansion to work on multiple projects; (01:12:50) long-term value proposition of the CBF, including expansion and restructuring of team; (01:17:16) changes in approach to work and hopes for the future.
