Parexel and Tokyo-based university prepping students for biopharma careers

Meiji Pharmaceutical University (MPU) is a private pharmacy and science university. In collaboration with Parexel, the school has launched a new joint program for clinical research and clinical trial management to prepare its undergraduate students for a career in the biopharmaceutical industry.

“Parexel and MPU are pleased to deliver this joint program to prepare students for careers in the biopharmaceutical industry, and with it hope to meet the industry’s growing demand for talent in clinical research,”​ said Sonja Wilkens, director of Parexel Academy Operations.

The four-week curriculum combines Parexel’s global clinical research knowledge with MPU’s pharmaceutical training.

Wilkens explained that by offering this program, “Parexel and MPU can help build a talent pool with candidates that have strong scientific knowledge as well as understand how the sciences play in the drug development and global regulatory processes.”​

“They will also learn the practices as related to clinical research management, which provides them with the requisite skills and knowledge to participate and effectively contribute to global clinical research after graduation,”​ she added.

Parexel Academy lecturers will teach the clinical research management content of the curriculum, which will be delivered in English to enable the Japanese students to practice the use, said Wilkens.

The first official program will be offered in November 2019 following a series of two-week pilot programs. In the future, select MPU students may be eligible for enrollment at the Parexel Academy in Berlin, according to the company.

Parexel’s Academy was established more than a decade ago and has since expanded outside Europe to the Asia Pacific Region, through partnerships with the National University of Singapore, the Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, and now, MPU.

The Academy also recently partnered with the Internationale Hochschule Bad Honnef (IUBH) in Germany to launch a global MBA Clinical Research Management degree.