Four winners of QUT’s The Bridge Program pitch competition have travelled to the United States to tour the headquarters of major global pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Amgen and Merck.
The travel scholarship recipients Professor Derek Richard (QUT), Dr Danny Bosch (Microba), Dr Lilly Bojarski (Bio-Link), and Dr Benjamin Buckley (University of Wollongong) were given exclusive tours and met with some of the world’s pharmaceutical leaders during their US visit.
“We had over 30 meetings with scientists, senior executives and vice-presidents, providing us with a rare opportunity to build face-to-face relationships with stakeholders you normally do not have an opportunity to meet,” Dr Bosch said.
The four pitch competition winners are among the 98 researchers, entrepreneurs and industry professionals who took part in The Bridge Program in 2018, the second year that it has been held.
A professional development program, it draws on the global pharmaceutical industry to equip researchers and entrepreneurs with the enhanced skills, knowledge and networks to bring new medicines to market.
Professor Richard, scientific director of the Cancer & Ageing Research Program (CARP) at QUT, said he enrolled to “literally ‘Bridge the Gap’ in my knowledge” to better understand pathways and hurdles in the process of bringing new drugs to patients.
“I went into the program with high expectations, having spoken to the previous year’s participants,” he said. “These expectations were met and exceeded.”
Bridge Program participants completed comprehensive online training modules, an occasional seminar series, and a three-day residential training program at which they heard from more than 25 international and national leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.
The program was awarded industry-matched funding by MTPConnect (Medical Technologies and Pharmaceutical Growth Centre) under the 2016 Project Fund Program, and this has now been extended through 2019.
Applications for the next offering of The Bridge Program will open this Thursday (December 13) and close on March 1 next year.
Also on Thursday, this year’s cohort will mark the successful conclusion of their program at an event at QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
Administered by QUT, The Bridge Program involves a consortium of 15 companies, universities and industry groups: AbbVie; Amgen; Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Boehringer Ingelheim; Celgene; CSL; Janssen-Cilag; Macquarie University; Medicines Australia; Medical Research Commercialisation Fund; MSD; Mundipharma; Novartis Pharmaceuticals; and Pfizer.
Contact The Bridge Program on 07 3138 8210 or bridge.program@qut.edu.au
QUT Media: media@qut.edu.au or after hours 0407 585 901
