EMTM Profiles by Industry:
Biopharm/Health

Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology firms make up a multi-billion dollar industry that depends on the strategic use of science, technology, information and intellectual capital. To compete and excel, organizations need scientists, engineers and technologists who understand the business drivers that determine success and failure — and they need leaders in finance, marketing and operations who understand the processes and principles behind scientific discovery and development.

For scientists, engineers and IT leaders in pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotechnology organizations, EMTM offers the chance to examine your own industry in greater depth — and to broaden your understanding of technologies in other areas that have an impact on advances in pharmaceutical and biotechnology.

More than 20 percent of current students work in the biotech/pharmaceutical/health sector. They take advantage of multiple courses in EMTM’s Biopharmaceutical and Biotechnology area, such as Drug Discovery, Introduction to Biotechnology and BioNanotechnology, and Medicine and Biotechnology — as well as EMTM’s management courses and a host of electives and seminars in other technologies, from Advanced Materials and Robotics to Data Mining, IT Strategy and IT Security and Privacy.

“We give leaders the tools to assess a new technology and what it can deliver at present, to evaluate and manage its risk and cost factors and to determine at what point it should be adopted” says EMTM’s Scott Diamond, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Medicine and Engineering. “Students learn to think in an integrative way to understand the business issues, the scientific issues, the database issues, the organizational issues and how to manage at that interface.”

“I wanted to learn more about how technology influences the world and how other industries are using it... The faculty has a good handle on what is going on out there. I’ve seen that there’s an application for just about everything I study at EMTM,” says Jim Breen, MBA, EMTM’07, Vice President of Worldwide Engineering, Global Biologics Supply Chain, Johnson & Johnson.

“EMTM changed the slope of my trajectory at Merck,” says Dermot McCaul, EMTM’05, Associate Director of IT Strategy and Governance at Merck & Co., Inc. I was hired as a portfolio manager but this has been transformed into IT Strategy and Governance, a job that was created around my broader skill set. EMTM has changed my mindset from ‘how fast do I do it’ to ask different questions such as ‘what do we need to do, why do we need to do it?’ I can provide guidance on how to develop options to solve business problems, including options that don’t include IT.”

For Michael Naimoli, EMTM’05, now Director, U.S. Life Sciences at Microsoft Corporation, EMTM changed both the trajectory and the sphere of his career. A scientist by training, Mike studied medical microbiology at Penn State before starting his career in the pharmaceutical industry. He worked in drug discovery and manufacturing for two small startup biotech companies before he was hired by GlaxoSmithKline to lead a team responsible for the technology transfer of biopharmaceutical products from R&D to manufacturing. While there, he became intrigued by the operations outside of the laboratory and he started wondering how he might marry his working experience with new challenges.

EMTM marked a turning point for Mike's career. “As I was finishing the program I learned that Microsoft was starting a new life sciences industry unit that would provide IT infrastructure and partner solutions for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. I was offered a position, and I jumped on it.” When he was hired Mike’s manager told him that his degree had set him apart from other candidates.

Related Links
> Focus on: BioPharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
> Industry Insights: Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals

Representative Organizations
Companies and organizations where EMTM students and graduates have worked include:

If you are interested in EMTM and would like to speak with a graduate or current student in this career field, please contact us.