Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
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.
Fellow Feature
Cassie Goodman, PharmD
First-year US Public Affairs & Patient Advocacy Fellow
Sanofi/MCPHS
Tell us about your current day-to-day responsibilities in your fellowship role.
My current day-to-day routine is meeting with patient advocacy groups and internal team members to bridge the conversations from the patient perspective to the industry teams.
Throughout my day, I also work on innovative projects to work with patient advocacy groups, deliver scientific exchange, and report the work happening externally to our internal teams.
Fellow Feature
Nardeen Perko, PharmD
Alma Mater: Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences (ACPHS)
Scientific Communications Fellow, Medical Affairs
Edwards Lifesciences / Keck Graduate Institute (KGI)
What interested you in industry and how did you prepare for your interviews?
I wanted a position that offered diverse responsibilities. I did not have the predilection for a static, one-track career and instead, I wanted the fluidity of having different tasks and intertwined problems for me to solve. I knew that a fellowship would propel my professional development at the pace I wanted to grow.
Fellow Feature
Kevin Darko, PharmD
Alma Mater: The University of Tennessee
Fellowship Sponsor Company/Affiliation: UCB/IPhO
Fellowship Duration: 2 Years (2022—2024)
UCB Function/Discipline: Global Regulatory Affairs
IPhO Function/Discipline: Fellow Co-Lead, Diversity & Representation National Initiative
Why did you choose Regulatory Affairs as your functional area?
When I started pharmacy school, I knew that my goal was to pursue a career within the pharmaceutical industry, due to my experience working in a drug synthesis lab for two years during my undergraduate education at Bowie State University. However, my decision to pursue a career in Regulatory Affairs was made during my third year of pharmacy school when I enrolled in the Duke Office of Regulatory Affairs training program. I gained an in-depth look into the drug development process, FDA meetings, and how FDA drug regulation impacts drug development strategy applied in clinical studies. Seeing firsthand how collaborative Regulatory Affairs was as a functional area, and how Regulatory Affairs professionals were involved during every step of the drug development process, truly solidified my decision as I’m an individual who must see how all the pieces come together to lead to great results. Regulatory is also an enriching career path because it’s our job to ensure we can stay compliant with regulations and provide safe and effective products for patient use worldwide. One of my top priorities in life is to do impactful work, and Regulatory is a career field filled with impact!
Fellow Feature
Osamagbe (Osa) V. Woghiren, PharmD
Alma Mater: Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU)
Fellowship Sponsor Company/Affiliation: UCB/IPhO
Fellowship Duration: 2 Years (2022—2024)
UCB Function/Discipline: Patient Safety
IPhO Function/Discipline: Fellow Co-Lead, Diversity & Representation National Initiative
Why are you passionate about the pharmaceutical industry?
My passion stems from my experience having lived on different continents and being exposed to varying levels of healthcare and the disparities that exist among them. Working in the Pharmaceutical Industry gives me a worldwide approach to healthcare, which I love. By applying my clinical knowledge and innovative strategies, I can impact patient care globally.
Fellow Feature
Elizabeth Wilks, PharmD, RPh
First Year Rutgers/Pfizer Fellow
North America Medical Affairs, Hospital Business Unit
What made you choose medical affairs as your functional area?
I chose medical affairs because I like being the barrier between external stakeholders and the company. I enjoy being able to take medical information regarding our portfolio and simplifying it. I had experience working as an intern at Walgreens during pharmacy school and always enjoyed patient education. In my current role, I have been working on education targeted towards healthcare providers (HCPs) for a product in development.
Fellow Feature
Introduction:
Graduating pharmacy school and landing a post-doctoral fellowship is very exciting when it happens! Congratulations to all those reading this article that will be starting a new chapter of post graduate training. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fellowship programs don’t exactly look like what they did even just five years ago. This article has been written to provide some tips on how to navigate starting your post-doctoral fellowship in a virtual/hybrid setting.
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Simran Randhawa, PharmD
Global Medical Affairs Fellow, Inflammation & Immunology
Pfizer
University of the Pacific, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy
Why did you choose Medical Affairs as your functional area?
I chose Medical Affairs because of the plethora of opportunities within the functional area to not only expand my clinical knowledge but also to expand the asset and patient care. I have always been interested in working on medical strategy, congress strategy and content, creating relationships with key opinion leaders, as well as participating in the publication of scientific abstracts and manuscripts. Medical Affairs is also very broad in the sense that there are multiple subsections, and for me that was always interesting—seeing how each part of Medical Affairs interacts with each other and cross-functionally intrigued me as well.
Fellow Feature
Dr. Dimple Gandhi, PharmD, RPh
Position: Medical Communications, Global Medical Affairs Oncology fellow at Takeda
Alma mater: MCPHS University, Boston
My journey to industry has been unconventional. At a young age I discovered my passion and talent for makeup, started my own business as a freelance makeup artist and genuinely believed that was the career path I wanted to follow. My interest in medicine ended up drawing me to pharmacy school, yet I questioned myself every day because I could never see myself working in the traditional career paths of retail or hospital. I used to volunteer at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where I quickly realized that I loved the challenges, innovation and impact that can be found within the Oncology disease space. After many conversations with people and trying different jobs, I stumbled upon the pharmaceutical industry through an internship, which changed the trajectory of my career. I fell in love with the industry environment and the role that pharmacists can play, and for 4 years I worked hard to prepare myself as a candidate to enter industry upon graduating pharmacy school.
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Austin Mullins, PharmD
AbbVie/USC First-Year Fellow: Global Medical Affairs-Evidence Solutions
What is your current day-to-day role at your company?
My days vary based on the projects I am working on and the action items at hand. I typically have plenty of meetings in the morning with directors and AbbVie leadership involved around our team's budget and ongoing studies. After my morning meetings I will complete any urgent action items needed from me for the team. My afternoons are typically spent in meetings for the projects I am working on along with getting some time to work on my projects and project managing various other activities occurring within our team. The day-to-day largely varies, as some days I work with the field team and go on co-rides with MSLs or visit local sites to discuss the progress of ongoing studies with our principal investigators.
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Michael Spork, PharmD
I am a second year post-doctoral fellow at Xcenda on our US Market Access Strategy team. I am also in my second year with the University of Florida Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy Master’s in Science program, specializing in Pharmaceutical Value Assessment and Communications.
What is your current day-to-day role at your company?
In my current role I partner with pharmaceutical companies to improve access to their innovative products. This includes the scientific work of developing the evidence as well as creating materials to communicate this value to a payer audience. This includes working on payer value propositions, pre-approval information exchange, market research, as well as a variety of other strategic work and resource development. We work with companies pre-launch, through launch, and as an asset matures.
Fellow Feature
Michele Muir, PharmD, RPh
First Year US Medical Affairs Fellow
GSK/University of North Carolina
What is your current day-to-day role at your company?
The UNC fellowship is unique in that you spend the first year at the university engaging in research. This provides the foundation and experience in clinical research that translates to the second year at GSK. My current day to day role involves project management, prepping abstracts/manuscripts for conferences or publications, and making a positive impact at a global level.
Fellow Feature
Fellowship Sponsor Company: University of North Carolina/GlaxoSmithKline
Function/Discipline: Global Regulatory Affairs Chemistry Manufacturing and Control (CMC)
Fellowship Years: 2020-2022
Alma Mater: University of Pittsburgh
Fellow Feature
Fellowship Sponsor Company: Rutgers / Bristol-Myers Squibb
Function/Discipline: HEOR
Fellowship Years: 2019—2021
Alma Mater: Xavier University
Have a fellowship question? Click here to ask a current fellow!
Fellow Feature
Fellowship Sponsor Company: UCB / IPhO
Function/Discipline: Global Regulatory Affairs
Fellowship Years: 2020—2022
Alma Mater: Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS)
Co-Chief, IPhO National Fellows Council
How has IPhO prepared you for a career working within the pharmaceutical industry?
I believe IPhO prepared me in several ways. The most obvious preparation came from increasing my knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry. In pharmacy school, most students simply learn that in order to get a drug approved, you submit an IND and NDA to the FDA and hopefully it gets approved. We learn next-to-nothing about the opportunities for pharmacists post-grad, which have boomed over the last 10 years or so. By attending IPhO meetings, I was able to learn an incredible amount about pharmacists in the industry and the critical roles they play in drug development. Another way IPhO prepared me for this career is by improving my soft skills. I was fortunate enough to lead the ACPHS IPhO chapter for about a year and a half, which gave me an opportunity to work on my leadership, communication and project management skills, all of which are invaluable to a career in regulatory affairs. Ultimately, IPhO gave me a platform to learn about the industry while growing the skills necessary to enter the industry, both of which were critical to landing my position.
