Business Development and Licensing Associate Review

I would be having calls with new and existing companies within the EU and Middle East, that MSD have been in contact with, evaluating their proposal of assets/drug molecules/targets/technology... to decide if we want to take it in-house to develop further and produce a diagnostic or therapeutic for people worldwide. Also seeing if this opportunity can benefit us and grow our pipeline, whilst being financially realistic.

I have grown my confidence and self reliance skills through online calls and conferencing events, speaking to CEO's and company founders who know a lot more than me, learning to navigate my conversational skills and questions. I have become more commercially aware of the pharmaceutical industry, have dealt with serious deadlines on a range of projects and individual/group work, I have become more definite in my decision making and opinions.

Yes I was given huge amounts of responsibility, being the only placement student in my department. I was responsible for arranging company calls from all around the EU and Middle East, created numerous PowerPoint and Excel spreadsheets of assets we were looking at, making sure it was up to date and accurate. I was often given big tasks that to complete on my own e.g. identifying top ranking universities and research groups in Germany.

I received a lot of support and felt there was a nice balance of guidance and independence that colleagues gave me in order to learn for myself and grow as an individual.

Company culture was great and never once did I feel a negative attitude in any aspect of the company. It was a warm, close-knitted environment, loads of social contact and overall positive atmosphere to work in.

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement and I'm so proud I did it!!

Yes

Be confident in your unique skills because no way are you under-qualified! Placement students are there to learn so just show you're keen and excited about the company and role and you'll get to where you want to be.