By John Spoden for the Allergan company newsletter:  

On June 3, 2004 Allergan’s Dr. Del Stagg, Senior Director, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs, was honored at the 7th Annual FDA/OCRA Educational Conference held in Irvine, CA. OCRA (Orange County Regulatory Affairs Discussion Group) recognized Del for his contributions as a founding member of OCRA and for his continuing years of dedicated volunteer service to the organization. A scholarship in Del ’s name was established benefiting students enrolled in the USC Regulatory Science Masters Program.

Helene Spencer, past President and current board member of OCRA, presented Del with the award saying “ Del was instrumental in creating and organizing OCRA. He also fostered the relationship with FDA’s local district office and helped establish OCRA as a respected and nationally recognized organization.”

OCRA’s mission “to provide high quality educational programs to regulatory affairs professionals in the medical products industries and to offer a neutral forum for the exchange of information regarding issues and activities of interest to our members” remains true to the vision the group’s founders had 12 years ago. “When I first arrived on the West Coast, there was a need for collaboration between peers of different companies to share experiences and knowledge without breaching matters of confidentiality,” Del said as he accepted the award. “A few of us got together over pizza late one night and sent out announcements for our first meeting...I was quickly relieved of my mailing duties due to complaints of tomato sauce stains on the letters,” Del said, recalling the group’s inception.

Del went on to hold a variety of positions within OCRA, eventually serving as the group’s President and helping to nurture the group to the large (over 550 members from 100 companies) and respected organization it is today. OCRA’s formal appreciation of Del ’s leadership at the June 3 rd meeting was especially appropriate as Del currently serves as an advisor to several educational programs in southern California designed to advance the knowledge of regulatory affairs.