In September 2022, 72 IPhO student chapters from across the country embarked on a six-month professional journey to create a drug development plan that would bring a theoretical new bladder cancer medicine to market.
Participating teams were asked to cover drug development from many perspectives, including clinical development, medical strategy, regulatory affairs, and marketing. With support from the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) team, students also incorporated patient advocacy best practices into their submissions—ensuring that the patient voice is always kept top-of-mind throughout the drug development lifecycle.
There are 830 PharmDs currently participating in US-based, industry-focused postgraduate Fellowships. This is a 12.5% increase over last year and a record number.
What was your motivation to pursue the pharmaceutical industry as a career path?
I had many motivations to pursue the pharmaceutical industry and particularly regulatory affairs as a career path. When I was completing my APPE rotations as a pharmacy student, I had a rotation with AbbVie pharmaceuticals in regulatory affairs advertising and promotion. I learned so much from that experience and I saw the continuous growth, in knowledge but also in opportunities for career advancement, which I found appealing. I gravitated towards regulatory affairs because this function attaches you to innovation in new therapies, new mechanisms, new technologies, etc. This made sense to me as a career path, as I was always excited to lead/work on new projects throughout pharmacy school.
If you're looking to break into industry as a PharmD, this resource is for you! In addition to fellowships, direct-to-industry roles are a great option for pharmacists to begin their careers. Check out different employment options in the infographic below, as well as our tips for applying.
If you're looking to enter industry without a fellowship, don't miss our newly released direct-to-industry analysis, now available on the IPhO website. From this publication, you'll learn about the roles that were most common for the 253 Class of 2022 graduates who entered industry without a fellowship, along with details about the employers that hired them.
We've shared many times that roughly 80% of pharmacists currently working in industry never completed a fellowship. And we continue to reinforce that statistic because it's important that graduating pharmacy students know that a fellowship is not the only way to launch an industry career!
This report from the Industry Pharmacists Organization (IPhO) documents the outcomes of PharmD Fellows with a planned Fellowship end date in 2022 (n=407) by analyzing the characteristics of their full-time employment post-Fellowship.
View the full report to learn more about:
Characteristics of full-time positions that Fellows secured after their Fellowship
How long Fellows stayed in their Fellowship before starting a full-time job
What percentage of Fellows are retained by their host company post-Fellowship
Differences and similarities in 1-Year vs. 2-Year Fellowship outcomes
On February 8, 2023, SIA-IPhO (Industry Pharmacists Organization) students at USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy hosted an Internship Forum event, coordinated by the first-year board representatives.
Mr. Jerry Silverman, IPhO Senior Consultant, Coach, and Industry Instructor, described the high interest of student pharmacists seeking industry careers, the importance of starting early when preparing for industry as P1 and P2 students, and the value that prospective industry employers place on clinical rotations.
Furthermore, Mr. Jerry Silverman, Dr. Denise Barlett, Dr. Sara Fouad Mahmoud, and Dr. Zade Hikmat presented valuable insights about professional development resources, direct-to-industry pathways, fellowships, internships, and valuable resources for students offered through IPhO and the USC E. Mann School of Pharmacy.
Stacie Smith, PharmD, MBA Associate Director, Global Market Access – Oncology Eli Lilly and Company LinkedIn Profile
What was your motivation to pursue the pharmaceutical industry as a career path?
My motivation for pursuing a career in the pharmaceutical industry was the desire to contribute to the development of life-changing therapies that improve health outcomes and patient quality of life.
What is your current day-to-day role like at your company?
My current day-to-day role consists of attending various cross-functional meetings, both internally and externally, and collaborating on the authoring and maintenance of regulatory documents. The types of meetings I attend include global/regional labeling, maintenance of IND and/or NDA applications, regulatory strategy, regulatory intelligence, and regulatory operations. I also assist in the interpretation of FDA regulations and guidelines to ensure that published materials are compliant with the FDA.
We are pleased to announce that Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!
Congratulations to the student pharmacists at Xavier University! IPhO now connects them to nearly 6,000 student pharmacists with similar interests, as well as a national network of hundreds of industry fellows and thousands of industry pharmacists.
Several more schools are in the late stages of filing their chapter applications and will soon join the growing national network.
We are pleased to announce that Auburn University Harrison College of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!
Congratulations to the student pharmacists at Auburn University! IPhO now connects them to nearly 6,000 student pharmacists with similar interests, as well as a national network of hundreds of industry fellows and thousands of industry pharmacists.
Several more schools are in the late stages of filing their chapter applications and will soon join the growing national network.
Gifty Gyebi, PharmD GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Medical Science Liaison LinkedIn Profile
What was your motivation to pursue the pharmaceutical industry as a career path?
Honestly, I just knew that a career involving direct patient care was not for me, and I still wanted to make an impact in healthcare. My college of pharmacy didn't offer much guidance in terms of career options outside of retail and hospital. Thankfully, I had (and still have) a great mentor who helped me explore other paths.
We are pleased to announce that Ohio Northern University College of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!
Congratulations to the student pharmacists at Ohio Northern University! IPhO now connects them to nearly 6,000 student pharmacists with similar interests, as well as a national network of hundreds of industry fellows and thousands of industry pharmacists.
Several more schools are in the late stages of filing their chapter applications and will soon join the growing national network.
IPhO industry research was on full display at the 2022 ASHP Midyear Meeting in Las Vegas this month, including data reported for the first time on the following topics:
Class of 2022 Incoming Fellows Recruitment and Decision Characteristics
Class of 2023 Fellowship Candidate Recruitment and Interview Preferences
IPhO is committed to providing the necessary insights, data, and analytical information to assist students, fellowship program stakeholders, and industry employers in their identification of industry opportunities and recruitment of industry talent. Results of all five research studies offer application and career development guidance that can be immediately used.
From left to right: Amir Chadna, Heather Faulkner, Srayant Gayam, Ayomide Kumapayi, Myra Sheikh
When did you decide that you wanted to work in industry versus retail/hospital? Was there an experience that inspired that decision?
I grew up with so much exposure to community and retail settings because my dad (also a pharmacist) owned a pharmacy in an underserved community in Mobile, AL. While I was very proud of my family-owned pharmacy business and the impact it had on the community in my hometown, I was also very interested in exploring opportunities with a global impact. At Florida A&M University (FAMU), we had access to speaker forums that highlighted the experiences of professionals working in various pharmacy settings. During one of the sessions, I vividly recall hearing a speaker highlighting her experience in the pharmaceutical industry, which definitely piqued my interest. It all started coming together as I listened to this fascinating presentation and the various career paths in pharma, including Medical, Commercial, and Regulatory.
I worked with a student guidance counselor in my school to help navigate and think through different opportunities, including student rotations and internships, so that I could start building my experience while matriculating through my PharmD program. I started taking intentional and proactive steps toward getting experience in the pharmaceutical setting. Through my mentorship from professors with backgrounds or resources in pharma, and my network, I was able to obtain a summer program with Harvard Medical School Health Policy (2002), internship at the Schering-Plough Research Institute (2003), student rotation at Bristol Myers Squibb (2004), and a Rutgers Fellowship with Bristol Myers Squibb (2005-2006). After these multiple incredible experiences in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, I knew pharma was definitely the place for me to have a promising and fulfilling career, and this continues to hold true almost 20 years later!
We are excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2023-2025 Global Pharmacovigilance Fellowship at Sanofi in affiliation with Wilkes University! If you are an upcoming or recent PharmD graduate, you may be interested in this opportunity as the fellow will have the chance to join the Specialty Care team at Sanofi for a two-year Fellowship. The Fellowship will adopt a hybrid working environment and the candidate should ideally be based near Bridgewater or Swiftwater Sanofi sites. Application materials include a CV and one letter of recommendation, which can be submitted to SpecialtyCarePVFellowship@sanofi.com.
We will be conducting a rolling review of applications, so we encourage you to apply as early as today and prior to the application deadline on December 15th, 2022.
Please feel free to send any questions you may have to the e-mail contact above. We look forward to speaking with you soon!
Megan Kirkpatrick, PharmD Visiting Scientist Fellow, US Value and Access Eli Lilly and Company
What is your current day-to-day role like at your company?
I support value development and frameworks on our value excellence team for Lilly USA. My work focuses on preparing strategies for engagement with ICER (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review) for our portfolio and involvement in active ICER assessments.
Aisha Choudhry, PharmD Global Regulatory Affairs and Ad/Promo Sanofi/Rutgers Second Year Fellow
What is your current day to day role like at your company?
Every week looks different for me! For my strategy role, I was meeting with my regulatory colleagues and project team to discuss project development and ensure submission documents are on track. For my advertising and promotion role, I am in Joint Review Committee calls that include members of various functional areas, and we review promotional materials and comments that were made. Between meetings I work on my projects, which can include writing and editing FDA submissions, reviewing promotional material, and working on my leadership committees.
The Industry Pharmacists Organization (IPhO) and the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) are pleased to announce a collaboration on the development of the 2022-2023 Value of Industry Pharmacists (VIP) Case Competition.
The VIP Case Competition is an IPhO signature professional development program that challenges pharmacy students from a national network of 100 schools to design a cohesive development and commercialization plan for a theoretical new drug entity. This year, teams will be focused on bringing “metafitinib” to market for the treatment of bladder cancer (metastatic Urothelial Cancer, mUC).
