Ahmed MadyScientist at Ribon Therapeutics, Inc.

Goals

Pharma versus Academia

How to startup a small pharma company

Jobs in pharma industry

The drug development stages

How to Excel in Industry

Day-to-day duties in the company

Why Work in Pharma Industry?• Aspiring to contribute to the development of new drugs that treat or cure

patients with debilitating diseases and save their lives.

• Rapid scientific progress

• Working on a broad range of projects

• Career opportunities

• Lots of resources to do cool and sophisticated science

Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Pharma and Academia• Assess Your:

• Qualifications (PhD, postdoc, more than one postdoc)• Needs (family, work-life balance, salaries, shares)• Desires (fame, teaching, publishing, make money and help people) • Personality (impatient, fast-paced, flexible, team-player, maverick, risk-taker)

• Consider the:• Alternatives (small/Big Pharma, Research/teaching intensive universities)• Timing (What is more promising? What’s the future outlook?)

• Plan for the long term (what you want to go through in the next 10 years?)• Keep the options open (Moving between academia and industry)• Be analytical (Do your research)• Be honest with yourself (What do you really want?)

PLoS Comput Biol. 2009; 5(6): e1000388

Big Pharma versus Small Pharma

https://fortune.com/2016/05/13/big-pharma-biotech-startups/Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2014;4(2):112–119

How to Start up a Pharma/Biotech company?

Mol Biol Cell. 2014; 25(21): 3280–3283

Challenges• Resources (expertise, lab space, instrumentations)

• Stability and job security (more than 50% of startups fail Within 5 Years)

• Salary & benefits (sometimes it might not be as great as Big Pharma)

• Performance evaluations tied to promotion and salary

• Multitasking & wearing many hats

• Project terminations and decisions made beyond control

• Lots of meetings

Rewards• Fast-paced, less bureaucracy and fun (Emphasis on Culture/may be

Travels)

• Your scientific contributions are recognized

• You witness the Business side of things

• Great Financial reward

• Career development

• Promotions are faster

The Drug Discovery Process is Long and Expensive

Nature 437, 2005: 491–493

Shortening The Preclinical Stage

https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/07/new-age-drug-development

Shortening The Preclinical StageBiochemist

Crystallographer

Computational Chemist PK/PD Scientist

Organic/Medicinal Chemist

Pharmacologist/Toxicologist

Biologist

Formulation scientist

Translational Scientist

https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/07/new-age-drug-development

Biologist/BiochemistBioinformatician

Regulatory Affairs

The New Age of Drug Development

https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/07/new-age-drug-development

How to Develop a Drug CandidateRapidly?• The Magic word: Outsourcing• Contract Research Organizations (CRO’s). Commercial or Academic

organizations that provide services for certain fees (FFS or FTE)• CRO’s are everywhere: USA, Canada, Europe, Asia (can we have some in

the Middle East?)• Provide fast and maybe cheap routes to aid in drug development• CRO’s could be highly profitable:• Covance ($10.44B Revenue)• CRL ($1.86B Revenue)• Wuxi Apptec ($1.01B Revenue)

The Clinical stage

https://www.fda.gov

The Clinical stage

https://www.fda.gov

Clinical Trials Manager

MD’s, PharmD’s, Nurses

Translational Scientist

Career Ladder

ScientistSenior Scientist

Principle Scientist

Assoc. Director

DirectorVP/CSO

CEO

How to Excel in Industry• Interpersonal skills (positive, trustworthy)

• Communication skills

• Diplomacy/Influencing skills

• A Team player (interacting with others, sharing knowledge, active participation)

• Flexible and adaptable

• Strategic thinking

• The ability to see the forest through the trees

Day-to-Day Responsibilities• A good boss is better than a good company. A good boss would discipline

you, train you, develop you.” -Jack Ma

• Time management

• Multiple projects (Multitasking)

• Meetings and presentations

• Celebrating milestones

• Fun

ahmed.mady@egyptscholars.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedsamady/