IPhO News

Jerald Grace, PharmD
Senior Director, Regulatory Science
Day One Biopharmaceuticals
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeraldgrace/

What was your motivation to pursue the Pharmaceutical Industry as a career path?

Growing up, I always enjoyed providing help and assistance to loved ones in any aspect I could - which led me to pursue pharmacy as a career. Additionally, I knew I wanted to work in an environment where I could help patients on a wide scale. In school, I enjoyed working with my classmates in a team atmosphere on projects and activities. Seeing fellow alumni from Florida A&M return to campus and speak about the various opportunities for pharmacists within the industry was quite appealing and lined up well with my career aspirations post-graduation. I continued to network with past and current fellows during my last year of school, which led to me pursue the Rutgers Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program.

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.

IPhO is pleased to share the following consensus statement on behalf of the newly-formed Academic Industry Fellowship Alliance (AIFA).

This decision is a step in the right direction to bring stability to a marketplace in which offers were trending earlier each year—as early as the beginning of November—which is 8 months before the Fellowship start date.

AIFA programs offer more than 70% of available fellowship positions. It is not known at this time what the offer timing will be for the other 25-30% of programs. Some may make offers earlier, some may agree to the December 7 timing, while others will extend offers later or even "off cycle."

Class of 2023 students are strongly encouraged to attend the upcoming IPhO Annual Meeting from September 9-11 for information on program updates. Students should also follow IPhO news posts/email announcements to learn more.

Consensus Statement:

Recognizing that the choice of a Post-Doctoral Industry Fellowship is an important decision, the Academic Industry Fellowship Alliance (AIFA) has agreed to extend offers for Fellowships no earlier than December 7, 2022.

• AIFA is comprised of Keck Graduate Institute (KGI), Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), Northeastern University Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships, Purdue University College of Pharmacy, Rutgers Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships (RPIF), Saint Joseph’s University, University of North Carolina Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics (UNC, DPET), and University of Southern California School of Pharmacy (USC School of Pharmacy).

AIFA sees this respect for candidate choice as a common aspect of the Program culture of each member institution. AIFA hopes that other academic and non-academic Fellowship Programs will respect this timeline.

Fellowship Programs interested in joining AIFA should contact any of the member institutions above via their Fellowship Program websites.

Paul Oyefesobi, PharmD, MS
Senior Manager, Pricing & Market Access
REGENXBIO
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-oyefesobi/
Instagram: @Tosinsview

What was your motivation to pursue the Pharmaceutical Industry as a career path?

As a young child with asthma, I constantly interacted with the health care system/pharmacies, exposing me to how decentralized and inefficient the process was. I then began familiarizing myself with pharmacy as a whole and noticed small gaps regarding the lack of counseling. When I pursued a Master's Degree in Health Care Systems Engineering, I saw the elevated cost of our specialized therapeutics—HIV, Hep C, and Oncology—which opened my eyes to the inefficiency in the system. Approximately 18% of our country's GDP is spent on healthcare. However, we are still not the most efficient globally. Through this realization, I saw the opportunity to make an impact by marrying my science background with my knowledge of health economics, which led me to start my career in pharma in HEOR. Leveraging my HEOR foundation along with my payer background, I pivoted to pursue a career in market access in biotech.

We are pleased to announce that Chapman University has joined our growing network of close to 100 chapters!

Congratulations to student pharmacists at Chapman 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!

IPhO recently collected preferences and insights from Class of 2023 IPhO student pharmacist members regarding Fellowship recruiting processes and affordability. These results are being shared widely to help support students and Fellowship employers in preparation for the Fall 2022 Fellowship recruiting season.

As the 2021-22 fellowship year comes to a close, IPhO would like to recognize and thank its National Fellows Council leaders, who have dedicated time and attention to making the year's initiatives incredibly successful.

Congratulations to the following leads and committee members, who are completing their fellowships and accepting full-time industry roles.

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.

George Jackson, PharmD
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Medical Science Liaison
Specialty - Renal Anemia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-j-76924816b/

What was your motivation to pursue the pharmaceutical industry as a career path?
My answer is multifactorial. Previously, I worked as an ambulatory care pharmacist, improving patients' lives; however, my impact was limited to only a few patients. As a medical science liaison (MSL), my role allows me to be part of a team that provides scientific support to hundreds of healthcare professionals impacting patient care on a national and global scale. Though improving patient outcomes is paramount in what we do in our roles, self-care is also imperative. My role as an MSL provides an outstanding work-life balance contributing to good physical and mental health and allowing more time to be present for family. Furthermore, base salaries and total compensation are very competitive as well.

As we wrap up the 2021-2022 school year, IPhO is pleased to announce the 2022-2023 National Student Officers! They will continue the beneficial work done by this year's group and IPhO is looking forward to kicking off the new term with them in the coming months. We are starting with 95 IPhO student chapters (and counting)!

Congratulations and welcome to the following student leaders!

The 2021-22 student leadership term has been incredibly productive and exciting for our IPhO National Student Officers (NSOs) and Regional Student Officers (RSOs). We want to take a moment to thank them for their numerous accomplishments. These leaders worked tirelessly to ensure that all IPhO student pharmacists were well informed about the resources and tools available to them.

Kelly Wright, PharmD, MS
Medical Science Liaison—Gynecologic Oncology
AstraZeneca
Social Media: linkedin.com/in/kellywright611

What was your motivation to pursue the Pharmaceutical Industry as a career path?
One of my goals in life was to wake up every day feeling good about my job and to have a career that doesn't necessarily feel like work. I wanted a life where I'm not dreading Mondays, which led me to the Pharmaceutical Industry. The work-life balance, having a career that incorporates travel (one of my favorite hobbies) and impacting patient lives on a global scale all motivated me to pursue my career path in Pharma/Biotech.

Co-Authored By: Rebecca Zhang & Nina Teo

On Saturday, April 2, the IPhO chapter at Purdue University hosted the 6th annual Industry Pharmacist Symposium (IPhO Midwest Regional Meeting). This event began at Purdue in 2016 and has become one of the most influential conferences for industry-bound pharmacy students in the Midwest region. This year’s symposium was a great success, with a record-breaking 113 student registrants and 11 different pharmacy schools represented! The theme of the event was “Better Together.”

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.

The IPhO VIP Case Competition focuses on four functional areas of drug development: clinical development, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and marketing/market access.

Although cross-functional teamwork is encouraged and ultimately necessary for the overall development plan to be credible and congruent, each functional area (“department”) is responsible for a significant portion of the entire competition plan.

Congratulations, California Northstate University College of Pharmacy on your second place showing!

During drug development, industry pharmacists are often faced with many challenges on the road to approval. Therefore, the IPhO VIP Case Competition encourages student pharmacists to practice these critical thinking skills in the form of a Challenge Point.

The Challenge Point presents a drug development obstacle in a unique scenario that requires innovative thinking and solutions. It was announced at the midway point of the competition.

Congratulations to Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) for excelling in all aspects of this competition, including the Challenge Point, and placing first in the 2021-22 IPhO VIP Case Competition!

The Value of Industry Pharmacists (VIP) Case Competition has attracted more chapter interest than ever before. This competition is a significant undertaking that requires careful coordination and active participation from chapter members.

Strong leadership of the VIP Case Competition team is needed in order to organize processes, adhere to deadlines, and represent the team on the national level. Clearly, this is demonstrated by our third place winner, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy.

CONGRATULATIONS UCSF TEAM!

The Value of Industry Pharmacists (VIP) Case Competition provides student pharmacists with the opportunity to improve analytical, project management, and written and oral presentation skills. Success in this competition is the product of teamwork and commitment.

Managing a project of this scale requires coordination and dedication among team members. The competition was stiff this year and the following three chapters did an outstanding job!

THIS YEAR'S HONORABLE MENTIONS ARE...

In September 2021, 65 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 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) medicine to market.

Now in its 6th year, the VIP Case Competition is one of the most challenging and widely recognized professional development opportunities among student pharmacists who are preparing to pursue a pharmaceutical industry career. At the same time, "the importance of a successful drug launch has never been greater."¹

The median capitalized research and development investment to bring a new drug to market was last estimated at $985.3 million²?—the launch period requires a tremendous amount of financial and human resources. Industry pharmacists play a critical role in many functional areas to contribute to a successful product launch. And for that reason, the VIP Case Competition is an invaluable experience for student participants.

THIS YEAR'S FINAL NOMINEES ARE...

With COVID mandates being lessened around the country, Jerry Silverman, IPhO Senior Vice President of Professional Development and Coaching, had the opportunity on March 7th to visit with several of the IPhO-USC Chapter Officers in Los Angeles (aka Tinseltown).

“It was great to meet with IPhO student leaders in a live setting again, to hear about each of their personal and professional backgrounds and industry interests. I was also able to share with them previews of new programs and resources that IPhO will be introducing this quarter.”

From left to right:
Samin Malek Marzban, 2024, Director of VIP Case Competition; Arghavan Zolfaghari, 2024, Director of Professional Programming; Jerry Silverman, SVP, IPhO; Wenqi Lu, 2023, Director of Communications; Aleeza Sheikh, 2023, Vice President; and Renita Moradian, 2023, President.