Industry Pharmacy Fellowship Partnerships Expanding
Boston is known for its innovation and growth in the bio-pharmaceutical industry sector. The School of Pharmacy and the Department of Pharmacy and Health Systems Sciences are embracing the biotechnology growth in the pharmaceutical industry by developing partnerships with various companies to offer post-Pharm.D. industry fellowships. The Northeastern fellowship partnerships have been steadily growing over the past three years. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has grown from one initial fellow to a program recruiting for six new fellows to start this July 2019. Last Summer/Fall 2017 the school worked with partners Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals of Watertown; Bioverativ, a Sanofi Company of Waltham; Alkermes of Waltham; and Tesaro of Waltham, to offer new fellowship programs. These new programs added six new fellowship positions to the programs starting in July of 2018. In recent months the school has been developing fellowship programs with Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston and Verastem Oncology of Needham.
Northeastern University had a great presence at the December 2018 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting. Faculty, fellows and industry partners all worked together for three days to interview and recruit for 15 fellowship openings starting in July of 2019. Interest in fellowships is expanding, as noted by hundreds of applicants and interviews occurring over a three-day recruitment period. Overall, the fellowship programs are offering seven positions in medical affairs, three positions in regulatory affairs, one in commercial, one in clinical development, one in VESt, one in medical information, and one in pharmacovigilance/safety. Candidates for the programs come from schools of pharmacy around the country with diverse backgrounds and experiences to enrich the fellowship program.
So what does a fellowship with Northeastern University and a pharmaceutical company entail? Fellows are based primarily with the pharmaceutical company sponsor and train with dynamic industry-based preceptors. Fellows work in their primary area of interest to develop knowledge, skills and expertise in their respective areas. Additionally, fellows are partnered with faculty fellowship coordinators who plan their teaching experiences in the School of Pharmacy, projects and scholarship they will work on over the two years, and complete a teaching and learning program based in the school. Faculty members involved in the programs include: Deb Copeland, Mark Douglass, Michael Gonyeau, Andrew Orr-Skirvin, Tayla Rose, and Jenny Van Amburgh.
Interested in learning more? Email [email protected].