Diversity in Pharma Internship Program
Roivant Sciences and Roivant Social Ventures Launch Inaugural Diversity in Pharma Internships for Talented PharmD Students
Equal access to medicine and medical care should be a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, people of color, women, low-income populations, and the uninsured often cannot access the medicine they need—either because they cannot afford it, or because it has not been developed.
Biopharma offers a solution to healthcare inequities, but systemic issues exist within the space– including a lack of diversity in leadership. The pharmaceutical industry is overwhelmingly white and male, especially in the C-suite. Biopharma executives in North America, Europe, and Australia are less than a third female, according to a 2021 report from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. About one in five CEOs is female only one in four is a person of color, and in the broader healthcare field, only 1% of CEOs are women—the lowest of any industry (Korn Ferry).
This May, Roivant Sciences and Roivant Social Ventures (RSV) partnered to launch our inaugural Diversity in Pharma Internship Program, providing real-world drug development experience to qualified PharmD students from diverse backgrounds. By increasing racial and gender diversity in future leaders of the biopharma industry, we can start to dismantle these inequities.
We congratulate the following talented students on their internships:
Caroline Eason, serving as RSV Global Access Fellow, and working with Med Aditus, which is building a sustainable ecosystem to produce and distribute affordable quality medicines in Africa.
Dahye Kim, interning with Roivant Sciences' Program Management team.
Diana Locoteta, interning with Psivant Therapeutics.
Hannah Summers, interning with Roivant Roivant Sciences' Research and Development team.
During the Spring 2023 semester all interns completed RSV's "Making Medicines" course at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, the top ranked School of Pharmacy in the United States. This innovative course was designed to introduce PharmD students to the new drug approval process and key issues in drug discovery, pre-clinical testing, clinical trials, FDA approval, and global access to medicines. The course is taught by Lindsay Androski, RSV Founder & CEO, and Scott Singleton, Associate Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.