Interdisciplinary partnership preparing MBA students for pharma careers

In spring 2021, Alex Ramos Soszna ’22 was pursuing an MBA at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. With half his coursework complete, he was searching for a way to link his current studies with his previous degree, a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering.

“My focus was on working at a bioscience or pharmaceutical company,” Ramos Soszna says. “I had known since college that I wanted to be on the business side of things, but I wasn’t sure how to make that happen. Then I heard about this new program at Ohio State, and it seemed like a great fit.”

That fall, Ramos Soszna became the second graduate student to participate in the Medical Innovation Development Experiential Program (MID-EP), recently established with funding from the Harry T. Mangurian Foundation. The program hires full-time MBA students as paid graduate research assistants (GRAs) and partners them with a mentor, who facilitates hands-on, focused experience that prepares them for careers in the pharmaceutical industry.

Students and faculty involved in MID-EP work closely with the OSUCCC – James’ Drug Development Institute (DDI), which is focused on drug commercialization. MID-EP, as part of Fisher’s Center for Innovation Strategies, is a perfect match for interdisciplinary collaboration with the DDI on projects like competitive intelligence reports and market analyses. Its distinct position within Ohio State empowers its GRAs to learn valuable, translatable skills for their futures.

“The area where MID-EP helped me most was understanding how to research quickly and effectively,” says Ramos Soszna, who now works for the pharma company Bayer.

“When I started out, I used Google to find information — but by the end, I was reading and grasping advanced reports from key opinion leaders in the field.”

A path to success

Brian Wulff, PhD, has served as MID-EP's program director since the Mangurian Foundation funded its beginnings. Ramos Soszna’s experience is exactly what Dr. Wulff imagined when he helped build the program. MID-EP is designed to supplement regular coursework with a comprehensive curriculum that details vital elements of the drug development industry, including legal issues, current events, case studies and ethical dilemmas.

“The work that we did in these projects really helped Alex hone his skills in looking at a new topic, breaking it down and researching it,” Dr. Wulff says. “By putting all of that together with strategies for moving forward, MID-EP really helped kick-start his career.”

The same fortune has followed the four other MID-EP alumni: Justin Webbs ’21, Thomas Stephens ’23, Mike Roszkowski ’24 and Nick Morris ’24. Like Ramos Soszna, Morris credits Dr. Wulff and MID-EP with setting him up for professional success.

“Dr. Wulff was a phenomenal resource,” says Morris, who was recently hired at the multinational consulting firm Deloitte. “MID-EP gave me a better understanding of the biotech, health care and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the trends, challenges and technologies in each.”

Morris aspires to use that knowledge as part of Deloitte’s Life Sciences sector, which helps pharma clients adopt new tech to innovate and grow their business.

Into the future

As MID-EP enters its fifth year, Dr. Wulff looks forward to meeting and guiding a new group of students. For the 2024-25 academic year, MID-EP will welcome back Quentin Switzer for his second year in the program and accept two new GRAs, Krishna Konduri and Osaheni Ohwonigho.

This year’s cohort marks a milestone for MID-EP, as Ohwonigho is the first woman GRA to join the program.

“Unfortunately, pharma has been a male-dominated industry in the past,” Dr. Wulff says. “That’s changing slowly, and I’m thrilled that our program is better reflecting the industry’s modern landscape with Osaheni joining us.”

Dr. Wulff and MID-EP alumni are also hard at work establishing connections between the program and drug development companies in the region. These partnerships would enable visits to real-world laboratories, giving the GRAs even more practical experience to take with them into their professional lives.

Looking back over the past five years, Dr. Wulff feels deep gratitude to the Mangurian Foundation — both for the impact MID-EP has had on his students and for the opportunity to be their mentor, guiding them into their futures.

“Working with these students is one of the most fulfilling aspects of my career,” Dr. Wulff says. “I'm incredibly excited to see where they go in their careers, and I have the Mangurian Foundation to thank for the small part I got to play in helping them get there.”