Coming soon:

Feb 16: Stephen Messer, co-founder, LinkShare
Mar 1: Dylan Steeg, director, Intel Capital
Mar 15: Dave McClure, founding partner, 500 Startups
Mar 19: Dr. Milena Adamian, director, Life Science Angel Network
Mar 26: David Wells, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer
Mar 26: Alexandra Wilson, co-founder & CMO, Gilt Group
Apr 26: Barry Silbert, founder & CEO, SecondMarket
Apr 30: James McCollough, co-founder & CEO, Exosome Diagnostics

For more information, go to: http://nyuentrepreneur.org/speaker-series/

2011 Holiday Party at 1986 Wine Bar (43 West 32nd St)

You are cordially invited to the annual Fundamentals of the Bioscience Industry alumni holiday party at 1986 Wine Bar. The event will begin at 7:30PM on Thursday, December 8, 2011. 1986 Wine Bar is located at 43 West 32nd St. (between 5th Ave & Broadway)  and is walking distance from Penn Station (for all the Long Island peoples!). Please RSVP using the link below. If you have an questions, please contact Mr. Patrick Finigan, VP of Alumni Affairs at patrickfinigan7@gmail.com.

Link to Job Posting @ Forest Laboratories

Summary

The role of the Research Scientist is to support preclinical pharmacology efforts in the discovery and development of products in therapeutic areas of expertise. Assumes technical responsibility for all assigned nonclinical pharmacology activities pertaining to drug discovery, drug development, regulatory, and marketing commitments.

2011-2012 Alumni Executive Committee

*A chemist is preferred.

If you are interested in applying for this position, please email your resumé to Jennifer Fehrman at Jennifer.Fehrman@frx.com.

Summary

The goal of the Alumni Network Executive Committee (ANEC) is to create a framework in which alumni can reap the benefits and opportunities that positively impact their careers and the bioscience community. Through developing strategic infrastructure and supporting partnerships, the ANEC aims to promote interactions between industry professionals, alumni, and current students and to actively attract highly qualified candidates to the Fundamentals program. The invaluable opportunity of serving on the ANEC allows committee members to develop leadership experience and gain insights into the life sciences industry.

Positions Available – One Year Term: June 2011- June 2012.

President

The President is responsible for coordinating the activities of the VP’s and Alumni Ambassadors.  It is the responsibility of the President, in consultation with the Center for Biotechnology,  to develop the strategic objectives of the Executive Committee with the VP’s and ensure the timeliness and quality of execution of various programs, events, and communications administered by the executive committee.

The president is the Ambassador of the Program and its Alumni and is responsible for maintaining cohesion within the Executive Committee. He or she will be responsible for developing a strong relationship with alumni and helping to foster alumni and industry participation by ensuring the development and execution of the Executive Committee’s yearly agenda.

VP, Industry Relations

The Vice President of Industry Relations responsible for forging relationships between industry professionals and the alumni. The VP does this through various avenues, both professional networking events and informal ones. These activities include organizing networking and professional development  events.

VP, Alumni Relations

The VP Alumni Relations is responsible for supporting and promoting interactions between Alumni and alumni special events. This VP will work closely with the VP Industry Relations on events and the VP Comm/PR on alumni information management.

VP, Communications and Public Relations

This position is responsible for all outreach and promotion for the program and alumni network. He/She publishes the alumni news, coordinates the Annual Call for Applications and works with other VPs to ensure that their communication needs are met. The individual is also responsible for ensuring that alumni contacts are accurate and up to date on all  electronic group portals. This VP looks for creative ways to promote the program via on-line blogs, forums and other new media sources.

The ANEC members hold key leadership positions and will work closely with the Center for Biotechnology to achieve the goals of the network.

The Executive Committee will be involved in, but not limited to, the following activities:

1. Industry outreach
2. On-line Alumni Portfolio, email distribution list and database
3. Management of social and professional networking sites related to alumni
4. Alumni news & website
5. Networking events
6. Information sessions for the recruitment of new program attendees

Nomination Guidelines:

• All Alumni and current students are eligible to apply.
• Candidates can be self nominated or nominated by peers.
• Candidates must be seconded by at least one fellow alumni or current student.
• Optional – Candidates may also include a support signature from a Course Director. Course directors can support more than one candidate.
• Please submit the following information to Kate Hutchinson, copying Heather Bielski via email -Deadline extended to Friday May 27, 2011.
  1. Position you are applying for
  2. List of alumni/current class member/s who support your nomination
  3. If desired, optional endorsement course director
• A brief statement of interest must also be submitted to Kate Hutchinson, copying Heather Bielski via email as an attachment by Friday May 27, 2011. Please indicate which position you are interested in, why you are the ideal candidate for the position and ‘x’ factors that should be considered. Candidates are encouraged to show their ability to think “outside the box” in their statements and how they can best serve their fellow alumni.  This statement should be no more that 150 words. This statement will be posted on the website and voting will take place via the web.
• The elections will be held on-line starting the week of June 1st. All Alumni will be eligible to vote.

The FOBIP Alumni Network Executive Committee, New York State Center for Biotechnology, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Connecticut Innovations Present:

Financing Biotech in 2021

Executive Summary

The goal of this event is to discuss some of the various sources of capital available to emerging pharma and biotech companies and the current trends affecting the market. We have established a panel of investors ranging from angels to investment bankers who will explain their role in financing companies in the healthcare sector. The panel discussion will touch on current technologies attracting investment, promising new sectors, selection mechanisms for targeting companies for investment, factors contributing to successful exits, and upcoming challenges facing the industry in the future. Click Here for Speaker’s Bios

Thank You to Our Sponsors and Supporters!

Introduction by Dee Dao, President of the FOBIP Alumni Network warming up the audience at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

The event kicked off with an introduction by the moderator Sarah Webb, a journalist for the Webb of Science. She briefly touched on the issues of our new digital age, in which many people are communicating with each other in 140 characters, or less. She mentioned the issues such as freedom of speech and government regulation in the biotech/pharma industry, discussed the ways in which people interact with healthcare companies online, and gave examples of successful early adapters of online communications strategies in medicine. She asked what do customers want, as they get their information from the internet? Today 61% of people are getting their health information online, according to a Pew study. However, only 1/2 of those people are generating content i.e. posting to blogs, commenting in forums, or contributing to discussions in an online community.

This was followed by a fantastic presentation by Michelle Hoffmann, Senior Research Manager at Deloitte Research. There is alot of buzz around social networks, there was even a movie about it- it is on everyone’s agenda. Every kid is doing it, you probably do it yourself. But, is there value in it? It’s actually very hard to make money from social media. Clients asked Deloitte: If we use this, will we find value? Deloitte answered by doing research on social networks, which is actually different than social media. What should life science networks be thinking about? How can life science companies engage in this to find value? Michelle admitted that there is hype, and there is hope. Does anyone want to ‘friend’ a company? No. The system works on the premise of data collection and collaboration between administrators and users. Does social marketing improve brand? The jury is still out. She repeated the mantra “If you build it, they will not come”. Recommend that you don’t advertise- it often doesn’t work. There are many options: blogs, wiki’s, RapidFeed, i.e. microblog such as twitter. Focused communities are rising where people come together for a single interest or event. There are more people on Facebook than the entire United States. There is alot of hype. Why are Life Sciences clients interested in this? They are interested because patients are going online to find relevant information to achieve some sort of healthcare outcome, and these networks are consumer/patient driven. There are possibilities for physicians to come enter and interact, possibly for-profit operations. 60% of doctors are using social networking for professional purposes. Social networking is most commonly being used by patients and their families, especially those fighting cancer and childhood diseases. However, obesity treatment via weight loss has not seen any significant social network activity due to the “on again, off again” nature of the therapy.

There are many different methods for collecting information, so why choose social netoworks? Owning or running a social network can give the administrator a curated database of information unavailable to them from other sources or databases. Some of the strengths of using social networking include: Collect Information- Market research, competetive intelligence Communicate- Social networks rely on “pull in” information, opposed to the traditional communications strategy of “push out”

There are social networks where physicians can actually exchange information in an online community, such as Ozmosis which bills itself as “The Trusted Physician’s Network, where good doctors go to become great doctor”s). In Sermo, a “Forum to share latest medical insights for physicians”, physicians remain anonymous. 23% of physicians plan on using social networking in the next 12-18 mo. However, it does take alot of blood, sweat and tears and manpower to get a social network running and keeping it up to date. It is not like a static web page, which can just be set up and the owner walks away. Deloitte recommends to those life science companies interested in setting up social networks to hire a very experienced moderator. People use social networking for many reasons, i.e. recreational and transactional purposes. The transactional user will need a review for a product or advice in a scenario. For example, their baby has a fever, what do they do? This is where physicians and consumers can come in and interact. Deloitte has been showing their life science clients that there’s value in social networking. For example, SpineConnect allows “spine surgeons from around the world log-on to SpineConnect to share knowledge, develop novel approaches to treatment, address the top challenges in spine healthcare, and create technological solutions that address voids in the current marketplace with the underlying goal of improving patient outcomes”. Finally, Michelle stated that she felt social network’s strength was in up-to-date information on topics that are filled with uncertainty.

Thank you to our attentive and diverse audience!

Louise Clemens, a digital strategy consultant explained that pharma wants to use social networking, but are very afraid to. She focused on what is working now. Elsevier Publishing is currently using this platform to allow editors to engage in conversation, and interact directly with their advisory board. The American College for Gastroenterology, via their ACG GI Circle has set up a system where members can participate in the conversation by commenting on abstracts and following authors- a great way to cultivate information and keep the scientific discussion going past an initial meeting at a conference.

There were some very interesting topics brought up during the final discussion. It was noted that the Mayo Clinic has over 300 videos up on YouTube. The FDA represents the large unknown in this sector. While they have no official social networking guidelines in place yet for the industry, the FDA themselves is publishing alot of content online via social networks. In 2010 the FDA issued 52 warning letters to the pharmaceutical industry, but only one involved social media. That was a Google Ad for a drug, which was faulted for not providing the proper warnings and side effects for the product with its advertisement. Johnson & Johnson has been very successful in opening up dialogue with patients and customers via their social media team, which responds to the individual questions submitted via their social network online (See J&J Diabetes Institute Online Community). Remember to never launch on a Friday. And finally, the future of this field will probably lie in location based sites such as Groupon, Foursquare and MyCityWay.

The evening ended with a fun and lively networking session which had food and drinks provided by the FOBIP.

Submitted by Xiao (Michelle) Meng, Class of 2009 – Alumni should feel free to contact her at  michelle.meng@bayer.com.

Applicants are requested to submit a CV and cover letter (cover letter should specify the departments of interest with justification) to Dr. Pooja Merchant at pooja.merchant@bayer.com by March 17th, 2011.

Bayer HealthCare’s Global Regulatory Affairs, Epidemiology and Health Economics & Outcomes Research organizations are sponsoring summer internship assignments for graduate students interested in a career in the global healthcare field. In this internship, students will gain valuable experience working with health authorities around the world.

Summer Internship: We are looking for dynamic individuals to join the Bayer team and will work with you to find a perfect fit for your summer internship. Recent graduates are welcome to apply. Candidates must be available for a 3-month assignment in NJ, with possible travel to Berlin and other Bayer locations. Along with hands-on training, candidates will be assigned a mentor and be expected to deliver a project at the end of the summer.

Internships are available in the following departments:

• Global Regulatory Affairs
  Global Regulatory Affairs works with Health Authorities in over 100 countries, giving you the opportunity to work in a truly global workplace. The current regulatory environment is changing rapidly and we are looking for future leaders who are interested in working with the Health Authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) in China, or the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) in the EU.
• Global Medical Affairs, Epidemiology
  Work with senior Global Epidemiologists who are involved in evaluating disease and disease treatment in a population, supporting decision-making at each stage of drug discovery, development and life cycle management so that patients, providers and policy makers have the best possible information on drugs.
• Global Health Economics & Outcomes Research
  Assist with specific health outcome studies. Become fully versed in the therapeutic area, up-to-date on all major studies, both ongoing and completed, competitive product information, clinical and health outcome data. Exchange peer to peer scientific and health outcomes information with other GHEOR colleagues through presentation of health outcome study methods and results.

Internship Candidates: High performer with a global perspective, interested in the interactions between science and policy, wants to work with dynamic people and contribute to a changing environment. Training in an advanced degree (Masters/PhD) in policy/administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, public health, pharmacy, medicine, or related field. Good oral and written communication skills. Ability to display poise and confidence and to project professionalism in interacting with internal and external stakeholders.

May international students apply?

International students are eligible to apply if they meet the criteria required of all interns including being legally entitled to work and earn money in the United States. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain the appropriate visa, if applicable. As required by current immigration law, an offer of employment is contingent upon the student’s ability to provide the appropriate documentation showing proof of eligibility to work in the United States.