Feeder Programs First Step in Bringing More Diversity to Pharma
07 Sep 2023
Pictured: An entrance to Purdue University campus/iStock, jetcityimage
Last month, Eli Lilly and Purdue University welcomed their first cohort of 98 students as part of a new scholarship program that seeks to increase diversity both in education and the pharmaceutical industry.
Most of the treatments and cures that pharmaceutical companies focus on are for illnesses that affect white men, rather than women or people of color, said Lindsay Androski, president and CEO of Roivant Social Ventures and an independent director at Eloxx Pharmaceuticals.
“I do not believe this is because of malice but because people have a human tendency to want to make a difference in areas that have impacted them or their loved ones personally,” Androski told BioSpace. “But one area where I can make an impact today is to expose more talented future leaders to the industry and get them in the front door at the beginning of their careers.”
Leaders from healthcare company Roivant Sciences started Roivant Social Ventures in 2020 as a public charity aiming to improve healthcare access and delivery. This May, the two organizations launched a Diversity in Pharma internship program for PharmD students at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to provide real-world drug development experience to individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Many larger pharma companies have also recognized that lack of diversity is an issue and begun similar “feeder” programs to increase the representation of underrepresented demographics in the industry.
Purdue-Lilly Program a Win-Win for Partners, Students
The partnership between Eli Lilly and Purdue was designed to benefit both the company and the university, explained Nathaniel Utz, vice president at the Office of Industry Partnerships at Purdue University.
Eli Lilly has two new manufacturing sites within LEAP Innovation Park in Boone County, Indiana—near Purdue—which will require a lot of specialized workers.
“They have big talent pipeline needs,” Utz said. “They need to fill over 700 highly skilled positions within those facilities. And, of course, they look to Purdue as a good partner for current and future talent. That was where this partnership stemmed from.”
On the flip side, the program helps Purdue recruit top talent by offering a full scholarship to the university and a paid internship at Lilly—which is expected to cost Lilly $42.5 million over 10 years. Utz said the program was such a draw to Purdue that some students even broke commitments with Ivy League schools to join.
“It’s a pretty amazing thing when you’ve got full tuition covered, a degree from university, a guaranteed internship and presumably you’re then first in line for a potential job with one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world,” Utz said.
To fast-track the program, which was announced last year, Purdue recruited this year’s recipients from regular applicants to the university, Utz said. But for the second cohort, the university opened up a separate application process to specifically target talented high school seniors from under-resourced urban and rural populations who have overcome socioeconomic or educational disadvantages or are among the first generation in their family to attend college.
Each student who is a part of the program will take a class where they will develop their resumes, interview skills and career readiness and have the opportunity to interact with current Lilly employees through a mentorship program. While scholarship recipients aren’t required to work at Lilly after graduation, both partners in the program hope that the opportunities, experiences and connections gained during the program will open doors for students at Lilly and in the wider pharmaceutical industry.
“You’ve got this unique opportunity to have industry start interacting with students at a much earlier stage than their sophomore, junior or senior year [in college],” Utz said. “You’re literally getting industry to interact with our talent before they even set foot on campus for the first time.”
Increasing Diversity in a Post-Affirmative Action World
While Utz said the Purdue-Lilly program is one of the only programs in the country aimed at seniors in high school, other companies have launched similar programs for graduate students. For example, Pfizer’s Breakthrough Fellowship Program, started in 2021, offers juniors in college the opportunity to get a free masters degree, an internship and an entry-level job at the company. That same year, AstraZeneca partnered with the University of Maryland for a fellowship program for pharmacy students. And Bristol Myers Squibb recently began funding a program for undergraduate and graduate students with Drexel University’s College of Medicine centered on cell and gene therapy, complementing the scholarships it already provides for high school students to attend a one-week STEM Summer Academy program at the school.
“Greater diversity leads to better ideas and better results,” Wendy Clemens, vice president of Early Development Program Lead, Oncology at Bristol Myers Squibb, said in a press release. “By empowering these bright minds, we’re solidifying a pipeline of students who can help drive innovations across the fields of cell and gene therapy.”
These programs couldn’t come at a better time, with the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in July. Unable to take race into account in college admissions or for deciding on how to award these scholarships, there are other ways to ensure recipients are coming from diverse backgrounds.
“Most universities knew this was coming along, and so we’ve been out in front of it,” Utz said. “We’ve never really used race at all.”
But programs like this are just a start, Androski said.
“There are still barriers to talented, diverse candidates making it to the positions that decide where R&D dollars are allocated,” she said, “and that’s ultimately how I will measure success.”
Mollie Barnes is a freelance science writer based in Los Angeles. Reach her at mollie@100yearsco.com. Follow her on Threads and Instagram @shejustlikedtogo and see more of her work at molliebarnes.contently.com.
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