URI adds new track for biotech

When Prof. Arijit Bose conducted what he calls an “informal market analysis” last year, the response was unanimous.
Bose, chairman of the chemical engineering department at the University of Rhode Island, sought out the leaders of numerous pharmaceutical and biotech companies and posed a question:
Would a chemical engineering student who also took a concentration of pharmacy courses be desirable to your company?
“They all said ‘Yes, definitely,’ ” Bose recalled. “It was almost a uniform response.”
So URI made some changes.
Starting in the fall, the university will offer one of the nation’s first undergraduate programs in pharmaceutical engineering. As Bose’s informal poll attests, the new program will fill a need for chemical engineering graduates with ready-made knowledge of manufacturing medications.
With few options, companies such as Pfizer and Amgen have been recruiting chemical engineers with no pharmaceutical or biotech background, then going through the expense of teaching them about such things as sterile work environments and FDA regulations.
“They’ve been taking chemical engineering graduates and retraining them in areas specific to pharmaceutical engineering, basically the sorts of specifics that haven’t been taught in our curriculum,” Bose said.
Now they will be taught at URI. Students enrolled in the new program will start with a traditional chemical engineering curriculum, but in their junior and senior years, they will take three pharmacy courses and a new pharmaceutical engineering course that’s still under development.
The program takes advantage of the pharmaceutical expertise already at URI, in the university’s nationally respected College of Pharmacy.
Right now, pharmaceutical engineering will be a track within the chemical engineering major, but pharmacy Prof. Clinton Chichester predicted that it will eventually be popular enough to become a separate degree program.
“This is just the first step,” Chichester said.
With more than 1,400 prospective students applying for only 100 spots in the six-year pharmacy program each year, the new chemical engineering track will also serve another purpose, Chichester said: It will provide a different path at URI that can lead into a career in the pharmaceutical industry.
Bose said there are about 95 students in the chemical engineering degree program right now, and he figures that about 10 freshmen will enroll in the new track next month.
Jon Tomson, university relations advisor for the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, said the addition of the program at URI addresses a few emerging trends in the industry.
Manufacturers are moving from an antiquated batch production system to a continuous system of production called process analytical technology, in which humans never come in contact with the product during manufacturing, Tomson said.
The newer method requires accurate scientific calculations, which a chemical engineer with a pharmaceutical background is prepared for. Also, Tomson said, pharmaceutical companies are creating more medicines based on biological materials, rather than chemical formulas.
Graduates of the new program will have some background in biologics, Bose said. Or they could also enter the pharmaceutics realm, where engineers determine the best method of delivering certain medications, be it tablets, injections, spray or some other dosage form.
Under the existing chemical engineering curriculum at URI, students don’t receive training on the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the importance of keeping a sterile work environment. Those lessons aren’t pertinent to chemical engineers involved in the manufacturing of rubber tires, for example.
“But if you’re manufacturing a medication you better not have contamination,” Bose said.
Sourav Kundu, director of manufacturing science and technology at Amgen, which operates a major plant in West Greenwich, said those who take the pharmaceutical engineering track could avoid a “pretty intense” few months of training after joining the work force.
“They will already have the theoretically pieces under their belt,” said Kundu, who serves on the advisory council for URI’s chemical engineering faculty. “But the hands-on practical part, that’s not something you can get in the classroom.”
The new program is being launched with the help of a $75,000 donation from Paul McGarty, a URI alumnus and CEO of Fougera, a New York-based specialty pharmaceutical company.
McGarty asked that $50,000 be used to develop and implement a cross-disciplinary course in pharmaceutical engineering, and the remaining $25,000, to launch a scholarship fund for outstanding students in pharmaceutical engineering.
“Our specialty is developing topical pharmaceutical preparations such as creams, ointments and gels, which requires an understanding of both pharmaceutical and engineering principles,” he said in a URI news release. “We hope this new program will provide a unique opportunity for students interested in our and other specialty pharmaceutical companies.” •