2024 Access to Medicines Internship Spotlight
Roivant Sciences and Roivant Social Ventures (RSV) have partnered to host the Access to Medicines Internship and Fellowship Program, providing real-world drug development experience to talented PharmD students.
This summer Ethan Hsu is serving as a Research and Development (R&D) Intern for Roivant's Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC) team, where he is working on:
CDMO Site Visits and Selection Assistance. Organize and conduct site visits to Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) facilities. Evaluate sites and contribute to the selection process.
MSA Review and Contract Negotiations. Participate in contract negotiations for Master Services Agreements (MSAs) with CDMOs, ensuring clarity, compliance, and alignment with organizational objectives.
A CDMO Company Health Monitoring System. Develop a monitoring system to assess the health and performance of CDMO partners, utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs) and other relevant metrics.
Literature Reviews. Conduct comprehensive literature reviews on advanced formulation technologies, to provide insights into current trends and advancements in the field.
We sat down with Ethan to learn more about what drives his work and how his summer internship at Roivant will impact his career development.
When Ethan was in high school his father developed diabetic retinopathy, a chronic eye condition that occurs when diabetes damages the retina's blood vessels. Through a clinical trial, Ethan's dad was able to receive treatments that drastically improved his vision. Ethan saw first-hand the dramatic impact that drug development can have on quality of life for sick patients, which inspired him to begin pursuing a career in medicine through pharmacology competitions while he was still in high school.
Ethan was the first person in his family to graduate from college and received a Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. As an undergraduate he conducted research in the Welsh Lab at MD Anderson's Cancer Center. To date, he has published eight papers focused on treatment advancements in Immunology and Oncology.
Ethan's R&D internship this summer on Roivant's CMC team is now offering him the opportunity to further his research experience while directly learning about drug development.
Are there any particular areas of medicine that you’re especially interested in learning about and helping treat?
"I'm interested in working in rare diseases, because I've noticed that many companies do not pursue drug development for these patients due to the small market sizes that they represent. I feel that it's important to remember that there are people being directly impacted by these diseases that are in need of treatments."
What type of impact do you hope to create with your work?
"In my work rotations so far I have witnessed first-hand the struggles faced by underserved patient groups, especially in rural areas. Many of these individuals, often elderly, had limited resources and lived on meager incomes. Patients sometimes only had a monthly payout from social security and lived an hour away from the closest hospital. It was heartbreaking to see the people who need these medications the most struggle with access to essential medications.
Through these experiences, I became aware of the disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, driven by socioeconomic factors and systemic inequalities. It reinforced my belief that everyone, regardless of their financial circumstances, deserves access to the medication they need. I am committed to resolving this
inequality and am hopeful that through my work in Pharma I can have a significant impact on patients like this, in comparison to more traditional roles that often have a limited scope of impact."
What caught your interest about Roivant's R&D Internship with the CMC this summer?
"I've always wanted to have hands-on experience in the pharmaceutical industry and I think that the work of the R&D department in Roivant's CMC is captivating, because the nature of the work is so new. The work is constantly growing and changing. For instance, even within the first week of my internship I was already getting to dive in on researching new technologies that not many people have gotten to touch. It's a great place to grow."
What were your favorite takeaways from the "Making Medicines" class you took prior to your internship?
"The course really shows how much that Pharma has to offer. This class went into much more detail than our previous exposure to drug development, covering all the from the beginning of the drug development process through topics like post-marketing studies after approval. The guest speakers were so knowledgeable and they brought in real-life experiences that they have faced in their work. A lot of times they would bring us cases that they have had to deal with at work and then walk us through their rationale for very challenging decisions. They offered a totally different perspective on how people typically perceive Pharma."
Access to Medicines Internship/Fellowship Program
This May, Roivant Sciences and Roivant Social Ventures partnered to host our Access to Medicines Internship and Fellowship Program, providing real-world drug development experience to qualified PharmD students. The intentions of this program are to expand access to medicines to underserved populations, and to further UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy's goal of providing future industry leaders with pharmaceutical experience during their PharmD tenure.
During the Spring 2024 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.