Your Path
To Industry
Starts Here

Company: PRECISIONscientia

Current Role: Medical Writer, Oncology

Alma Mater: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Pharmacy

There are usually two trajectories into industry: one more traditional (which I like to call "vertical") and the other one I call "horizontal"—which, if you guessed it, is where I fall. My writing path was from the creative to the scientific prescriptive and is now a comfortable combination of the two.

As an undergraduate, I spent most of my days in class, afternoons in the library, and evenings creating stories in a world of science fiction online. I unlocked a well of creativity and allowed my readers to visualize and internalize some of the abstract notions of modern science. At the start of pharmacy school, I took a hiatus from writing and by my third year, it was a long-forgotten hobby.

Danny Talati, PharmD
Lead, Business Development
ATAI Life Sciences AG

When did you decide that you wanted to work in industry versus retail/hospital?

I went to Northeastern University’s direct pharmacy program. During my 4th year, we would have co-ops where we would take a semester off to work in a real-world setting. I worked at CVS and an independent pharmacy, eventually realizing retail was not for me. I was always interested in business and I minored in business during my undergraduate education. So I wanted to seek an industry opportunity, but my pharmacy school’s co-op department had no connections with biotech companies. I was flipping through an alumni book and learned about an alum who worked at a pharmaceutical company in California. Fortunately, they had an opening and I temporarily moved to San Francisco to work at Alza Pharmaceuticals for 6 months in medical information. During this experience, I had great mentors and learned a lot.

The guide below was written and submitted by Jaqueline Pereira and Michael Schaefer. Both are University of Florida PharmD Candidates, Class of 2022. These talented students helped pave the way to turn the VIP project into a pharmacy school elective credit. Thank you to both of these talented students for their helpful guidance!

The University of Florida (UF) is proud to announce that the IPhO VIP Case Competition is the first industry pharmacy course in the UF College of Pharmacy curriculum called “Pharmacists’ Roles in Drug Development.” This course allows students to learn the various functional roles for pharmacists in industry and how to contribute to a cohesive drug development plan. The VIP Case Competition will enhance students’ exposure to career opportunities in the industry field which is a valuable experience for students to learn more about the many non-traditional pharmacy career paths.

If you are interested in making the VIP Case Competition an elective credit course at your school, these are the steps UF took to get the VIP Case Competition approved for elective credit. VIEW THE GUIDE