Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) is helping to put academics on a fast track into the pharmaceutical market through a revamped sponsorship programme in the UK
The aim is to encourage interest in pharmaceuticals among academics and fuel the long term pool of potential employees while pursuing science relevant to drug development needs.
To kick off the new programme the inaugural MSD academic partners symposium (Maps) was held in July 2005.
The symposium celebrates the close links MSD has developed with universities and aims to bring together academic and professional excellence to advance medicine and science.
Dave Storey, executive director, pharmaceutical research, added: "MSD is committed to partnerships that can help build on the UK's science base and ensure the continued development of new treatments and therapies for society.
"Partnerships with academic institutions will be essential across the industry and will help the academic arena to research and discover new ways of achieving results which will drive medicine forward".
The winner of the symposium was Hui Ling Lai currently reading for a PhD at the University of East Anglia with a focus on the field of pharmaceutics.
Her presentation on 'The thermal properties of ethylcellulose and its compatibility with triethyl citrate (TEC), poylyvinyl pyrollidone (PVP) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) in films' won her a £500 prize.
The students, who were either reading for masters or doctorates at various universities across the country, presented to sixty peers, professors and scientists from MSD throughout the day.
After each presentation the students took questions on their research.
Students taking part in the Symposium were:.
Sarah Palmer, University of Birmingham.
James Collins, University of Cambridge.
Elizabeth Balchin, Kings College London.
Hui Ling Lai, University of East Anglia.
Sharon Inman, Imperial College London.
Severine Toson, Imperial College London.
Mark Ashcombe, University of Surrey.
Gavin Reynolds, University of Sheffield.
Lucian De Matos, University of Bradford.
Steven Booth, senior director from the formulation and process design department at MSD, said: "The students' presentations were of excellent quality and they had clearly put a lot of work into them.
"What was interesting to note were the references that the students made in their presentations linking the science to wider applications such as security scanning.
"Only through such thought processes can science move forward".
MSD currently has a wide range of other partnerships which it supports.
These include partnerships across the academic spectrum from primary through to post graduate research, along with proactive support for industry wide initiatives, patient and research groups and think tank bodies.
MSD's universities and schools programme currently forms part of a larger partnerships programme that spans a diverse range of activities from local affairs and schooling through to pharmaceutical industry partnerships.
Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) is the UK subsidiary of Merck and Co of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, USA, one of the largest research-based companies in the world.
The company discovers, manufactures and markets a broad range of innovative products and services to improve human health.
