Students enjoy day with industry experts

Published: 06 February 2020

St George’s Clinical Pharmacology students enjoyed a day with pharmaceutical industry experts on Thursday 30 January to better understand the potential career paths open to them after graduation.

The day commenced with a Dragons Den style event where six groups of students pitched to a panel of four dragons why their particular drug should continue to be funded. The dragons were made up of Principal, Professor Jenny Higham, Deputy Principal for Education, Professor Jane Saffell, Senior Lecturer in Neuropharmacology, Dr Alexis Bailey, and Tim Hardman, Managing Director of Niche Science & Technology.

The respective drugs pitched to the dragons were Cefiderocol, a treatment for anti-bacterial resistance; Atorvastatin, a heart attack and stroke treatment; Adalimumab, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis; Rivaroxaban, a treatment for deep vein thrombosis, Dapagliflozin, a treatment for diabetes, and Fluticasone, a treatment for asthma/chronic obstructive respiratory disease.

In the afternoon, students had the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with four professionals involved in the pharmaceutical industry. Tim Hardman, (Niche Science & Technology), Mark Bruce (ONO Pharmaceuticals), Chloe Bryan (Senior Clinical Trials Associate) and Robert Kaye (Clinical Trials Coordinator) fielded questions from students. Topics ranging from the importance of enthusiasm and the need to learn from failures, to the realities of a work/life balance in the industry and the need for personal development were all discussed.

Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Dr Dagan Lonsdale, commented, “The whole event is really innovative. The students are 14 weeks into the degree and are using both pharmacological skills and softer skills like teamwork, communications and presenting which they will be expected to use in the workplace.”

Joint course lead for Clinical Pharmacology, Professor Iain Greenwood, added, “We have just seen the feedback from the students about the event and its overwhelming been seen as a positive event. It was incredibly rewarding to see the students realise just how much they understood. It is testimony to our cohort of students and also the course team that this event was such a success."

To find out more about our Clinical Pharmacology BSc, please click here.