What’s in a Fellowship?

Imagine yourself as an APPE pharmacy student, or maybe you already are one. You’re thinking about what you’re interested in and find yourself at a career fair, focusing on post-graduate training opportunities. Among all the residency programs and recruiters, you see a table for a biopharmaceutical industry fellowship. You might find yourself wondering: what is an industry fellowship? Well, you have come to the right place! For our inaugural post on the blog, we hope to answer that question. We want to tell you what we do and why we’re different from a traditional residency.

Biopharmaceutical Fellowship vs. Residency

The American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP), defines a residency as “an organized, directed, postgraduate training program in a defined area of pharmacy practice.” While there is no unified definition for a biopharmaceutical fellowship, there are some key differences.

As many pharmacy students know, the majority of residencies are a year long and focus on direct patient care, such as hospital, community pharmacy or ambulatory care. The primary function of this type of postgraduate training is to prepare pharmacists to apply medication knowledge to their patients.

In contrast, the type of fellowships we offer are one to two year programs within the biopharmaceutical industry sector. Our fellows may not be as involved in direct patient care, but their end goal is still the patient. During their fellowship, they will focus on the entire drug development process, from regulations, to safety, to clinical trial development, and so much more!

What We Do

Here at MCPHS University,  we provide PharmD graduates with in-depth, specialized training within the biopharmaceutical industry. We work with nine partner companies to offer innovative, challenging, and promising positions. Our fellows gain significant experience in a corporate setting to hone their business and clinical skills. Our program aims to foster professional development; provide intensive, hands-on training; and expose fellows to industry and academia-based opportunities. The MCPHS University program offers fellowships in 12 areas ranging from regulatory affairs to clinical research and marketing.

For more information about the program, head over to our website!