Bristol-Myers Squibb collaborates on education programme

Bristol-Myers Squibb has commented on its participation in the RxeSearch Summer Institute – a partnership programme involving the firm, national bodies, local school districts and other industry players.

The institute marks a collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and the education sector committed to teaching students how medicines are made, mapping the entire research and development process from idea through to discovery, clinical trials and the delivery of new drug.

Other partners in the initiative led by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association include Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Schering-Plough and Wyeth.

Francis Cuss, senior vice-president of discovery and exploratory clinical research at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: “This programme will teach students about the complex and challenging pharmaceutical research and development process and engage them in simulated but realistic [research and development] scenarios.”

He added that scientists and mathematicians of the future will be exposed to the drug development process through the institute, while the firm is happy to collaborate with its partners in the industry and in academia to establish this initiative.

In May 2007, Bristol Myers-Squibb announced the start of construction work on a new $750 million (375 million pound) biologics manufacturing facility located in Devens, Massachusetts.