UM School of Pharmacy Partners with Takeda Pharmaceuticals on Fellowship

By Patrick Smith

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy and Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A. Inc. have established a new fellowship that will help pharmacy administration students gain valuable industry experience in a real-world setting.

Takeda is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, with a long history in research and development of patient treatments. The company employs some 47,000 people, including more than 19,000 in the United States. 

The Takeda-UM Pharmacy Administration Outcomes Research and Data Science program is a two-year fellowship. Siddhi Korgaonkar and Hyllore Imeri, both Ph.D. students in the Department of Pharmacy Administration, are the first two fellows in the program. They began their fellowships Aug. 2.

During the fellowship, students will work with researchers at Takeda to perform outcomes research. Fellows will gain an intimate understanding of the company, attending team meetings and interacting with all levels of leadership at Takeda.

The fellowships will be beneficial for students, giving them a boost as they launch their pharmacy administration careers, said Yi Yang, UM chair of pharmacy administration. 

“Our students will sharpen their outcomes research and data science skills, receive training and apply the knowledge they learned in our program to solve real-world industry problems,” Yang said. “They will also gain valuable experience working in a pharmaceutical industry environment and prepare themselves to become future leaders in outcomes research and data science.”

The fellowship was conceived from discussions between pharmacy administration faculty and Takeda officials, which included UM pharmacy administration alumnus Kyle Null.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer a fellowship to pharmacy administration graduate students at Ole Miss,” said Null, senior director for outcomes research and data science at Takeda. “This is the sort of experience that I would have loved when I was a graduate student in the department, so I set out to create that experience for the students.” 

Yang pointed to support from within the university, including the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, as being crucial in establishing the fellowship.

“ORSP and the Graduate School strongly supported the establishment of this program in our department,” Yang said. “I would like to thank ORSP for its significant contribution to the successful establishment of this fellowship program.”