IPhO News

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.

To start a chapter at your school, contact us here.

For the student benefits of joining IPhO, view the National Student Brochure here!

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.

Dr. Carol Davis-Shiloh, PharmD

Executive Director | US Field Medical Oncology

Bristol Myers Squibb, US Medical

LinkedIn Profile

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!

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).

Elizabeth Wilks, PharmD
Hospital Business Unit, Global Medical Affairs
Pfizer/Rutgers Second Year Fellow

Tell us about your current day-to-day responsibilities.

My role is very project focused. I work across four different portfolios in the Hospital Business Unit (anti-infectives, surgical hemostats, immunoglobulins, and sterile injectables) which allows me to work on products across all life cycles. Recently, I have been working on a launch which has led me to help create several medical education materials for healthcare providers. I have also been supporting several educational lectures regarding a product and disease state for our field medical colleagues.

Fellowship application season is upon us! And we've been receiving great questions from students looking to optimize their CV and letter of intent (LOI) for industry employers. Our National Fellows Council (NFC) Social Media and Marketing Committee is here to help, with tips and tricks for standing out on "paper" with a top-notch CV and LOI.

And if you're looking for more assistance, you don't want to miss our on-demand CV seminar. It will help you build a customized industry CV to make your experiences translate to industry employers in an impactful way. Learn more here!

Brian Arana-Madriz, PharmD
Global Regulatory Affairs Fellow
Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease

Tell us about your current day-to-day responsibilities.

The beauty about Regulatory Affairs and pharma in general, is that no day is the same. You have to adapt as timelines tend to be fluid and objectives often change along with them. This is why adaptability is highly sought after in candidates pursuing a fellowship.

Ten years ago today, IPhO excitedly announced its launch to the pharmacist community. So much has changed over the last decade, but one thing remains exactly the same as it was on October 8, 2012: our commitment to our members.

We invite you to watch this special video, which was created to celebrate the success that you helped make possible. On behalf of the IPhO leadership team, thank you for being here with us these past ten years—we can't wait for what's to come.

As part of your IPhO National membership, you receive complimentary Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) membership. The Medical Affairs-focused professional development content that MAPS offers is unparalleled, and IPhO Members can now access this exclusive content as well as a global network of Medical Affairs professionals free of charge.

Watch the video above to learn more about the extensive benefits offered by MAPS and why you should activate your membership today!

Not an IPhO Member? Signing up is fast and cost effective. Learn more and join here.

Kyle Noonan, PharmD
Health Outcomes and Market Access Fellow
AmerisourceBergen Xcenda

Can you give a brief overview of your functional area and its structure and value within your company?

Briefly, Health Outcomes centers around how a drug impacts patient outcomes, such as hospitalization or mortality. Market Access often uses these outcomes in addition to clinical data to tell the value story of a certain medication. Each of these takes many forms, but both are important aspects of the late development and commercialization phase of a drug, when speaking with a payer audience.

Within Xcenda, this places me under the Value and Access Strategy team.

We are pleased to announce that University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!

Congratulations to the student pharmacists at University of South Carolina! 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.

To start a chapter at your school, contact us here.

For the student benefits of joining IPhO, view the National Student Brochure here!

We are pleased to announce that Samford University McWhorter School of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!

Congratulations to the student pharmacists at Samford 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.

To start a chapter at your school, contact us here.

For the student benefits of joining IPhO, view the National Student Brochure here!

Alexander Fletcher, PharmD, RPh, MBA
US Cardiovascular Medical Science Liaison (MSL) Fellow
Bristol Myers Squibb

Can you give a brief overview of your functional area and its structure and value within your company?

The Cardiovascular MSL team helps to execute upon the medical strategy created by the Home Office Medical team. The MSLs engage with thought leaders to provide educational value to the provider, support the commercial sales team, and to generate medical product related insights.

We are pleased to announce that Manchester University College of Pharmacy has joined our growing 100-chapter network!

Congratulations to the student pharmacists at Manchester University! IPhO now connects them to more than 5,000 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.

To start a chapter at your school, contact us here.

For the student benefits of joining IPhO, view the National Student Brochure here!