Derek Fitzgerald

Manager, Compliance Management Branch Medsafe, New Zealand Ministry of Health

Derek Fitzgerald manages the Compliance Management Branch at Medsafe, New Zealand's Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority. Compliance Management staff are engaged in diverse areas of therapeutic products regulation including: management of medicines and medical devices complaints and recalls; GMP auditing and licensing; testing programme management; medical device post-market activities and investigation, enforcement and prosecution activities.

He is a pharmacist with further qualifications in business and administration and in industrial production. He joined the then Department of Health as a GMP auditor in 1992 having worked in retail and hospital pharmacy as well as the medicines manufacturing industry and having spent time working in Great Britain and the Middle East. He has a particular interest in manufacturing and GMP auditing.