IT in Pharma/Biotech at The Howe School of Technology Management

HOBOKEN, N.J. ― With the fast changes in the pharmaceutical industry, Stevens Institute of Technology is offering a unique program for IT professionals who aspire to a career in this sector. The program aims to provide in-depth industry-specific knowledge, and each of the four pharmaceutical courses is organized around the pharmaceutical value chain, from clinical research to supply chain design, planning and execution.

“Information technology professionals and consultants need to understand what the issues are in the industry that they work in,” said Dr. Carol Brown, Distinguished Professor and head of the IT in Pharma/Biotech program. “The program is also designed to be useful for IT professionals who are developing software packages or custom solutions.” With her own background in IT research and information systems (IS) management, Brown joined the Stevens Faculty last summer to head the IT in Pharma/Biotech program.

“The industry has changed a lot over the last ten years,” said Carol Brown, who has a master’s degree in Business Administration and a doctorate in Management Information Systems from Indiana University-Bloomington. “The whole pharmaceutical industry is under different industry pressures, which have led to many new R&D alliances of large multinationals like Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough with smaller biotech companies. There have also been a lot of acquisitions.”

According to Brown, in addition to economic pressures, other factors have been pushing the changes in the industry. More stringent FDA regulations have also altered the sector, and with it, their need for information systems. “The drug development process has become more lengthy and difficult over the years. This requires computer software that can process the enormous amount of clinical trial data and can define the patient population for which the drug has a significant effect.”

Another of the four courses focuses on the Marketing and Sales part of the Pharmaceutical Industry, where IT has also become more and more important. “Sales representatives need software that allows them to answer questions that physicians and or hospitals may have and allows them to show key data in any setting.”

The IT in Pharma/Biotech program fits right in with the mission of the Howe School of Technology Management. Since its beginnings in 1997, this Stevens school has been offering a full range of graduate programs to industry professionals. “Stevens has always worked closely with industry to deliver education programs that keep up with the state of the art in technology,” said Dr. Lex McCusker, Dean of the Howe School of Technology Management. “Because Stevens is located in a region where pharma is the biggest industry, we work hard to serve this segment with our programs.”

Stevens Institute is no stranger to IT management, having one of the biggest MS IS programs in the country. According to McCusker: “With the emerging technologies in pharma and biomedical industries, we feel this program is a logical extension.”

One of the factors that have contributed to the success of Stevens’ programs is that they are developed and taught by faculty with many years of experience in the industry. “Business professionals are more demanding students, in the sense that they want knowledge they can apply the next day in their work,” said Brown. “A hallmark of the Howe School is that our faculty can also teach from their own experience, which is highly appreciated by the students.”

One of the faculty members whoteaches in the program is Keith Kebel, a thirty-year veteran in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, who worked as an executive with Pfizer and a CIO with Bristol-Myers-Squibb. After being approached by Jerry Luftman, Director of the Master’s of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) programs, Kebel has developed and taught the class ‘Pharmaceutical Industry Trends and Issues’ since the start of the program in 2002.  

Kebel has always tried to keep the class topics related to the current news. “Each course module includes discussions about the week’s news and how it affected the industry. These discussions allow students to appreciate the fact that the class is in contact with the latest developments in the industry. I also keep my course up to date by using a set of articles which I refresh every semester.”

The Howe School graduate courses are offered in weekly night classes or on Saturday at Stevens Institute, or on location at pharmaceutical companies. This September, the IT in Pharma/Biotech courses will be available for the first time on the award winning Stevens WebCampus, making it accessible for IT professionals worldwide. “More and more, big pharmaceutical companies are employing people around the world, including developing countries like India and China ,” said Brown. “Our WebCampus goes along with this globalization trend by making our courses available for these professionals as well.” For the new Stevens WebCampus version of the course, Kebel has developed new material. Students can log on to discuss recent topics, and view presentations.

Brown is also involved in developing a web-based IT applications course for non IT-professionals. “This course will be useful for pharmaceutical management students who would like to be better informed about IT possibilities.”

The four-course certificate program is one of the three industry-focused programs of the Howe School of Technology Management, which also offers courses in ‘IT for the Financial Sector’ and an ‘IT in Healthcare’ program.

The IT in Healthcare program, which will be launched in the Fall 2008 semester, brings IT professionals and healthcare professionals together in the same class, after an introductory course which is background-specific. In contrast to the IT in Pharma/Biotech program, which is directed at IT applications in pharmaceutical product delivery, the IT in Healthcare program is more focused on the healthcare delivery system.

“The program covers both systems for administrative practices for the back office and clinical systems to support patient healthcare, including e-health,” said Brown.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with a full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty of 140 and more than 200 full-time special faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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