VCU launches pharmaceutical sciences undergrad degree

Graduate school isn’t a prerequisite for a career in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Virginia Commonwealth University’s new Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) degree will prepare students to step into pharma jobs like quality assurance technicians, research technologists and laboratory technicians, according to Kelechi “K.C.” Ogbonna, dean of VCU’s School of Pharmacy. 

VCU will be the first public university in Virginia to offer the BSPS degree when it begins enrolling students in the fall, according to an announcement the university made Thursday. Hampton University, a private university, also offers the BSPS degree. Nationally, several institutions offer the degree. 

“What’s different about this program is many of those programs were designed as feeder programs for a professional degree or a graduate degree,” Ogbonna said. “A lot of those programs were not focused on … being a standalone program that is hands on, where they’re actually translating what they learned in the classroom and in internships and externships and getting familiarity and understanding with certain tools and instruments, assurance methodologies.”

When students graduate, Ogbonna said, they should be “well-equipped to jump immediately into a pharmaceutical company, for example, and be able to begin doing that work.” 

VCU leaders were propelled to develop the undergraduate program at the school because of real-world problems, according to Ogbonna. 

In the first quarter of this year, there were 323 active medication shortages according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. A report by the U.S. Food and Drug Association, updated in 2020, identified complicated root causes for the shortage, including a lack of economic incentive to produce less profitable drugs and a failure to reward manufacturers for investing in manufacturing quality. 

A need for employees to run Central Virginia’s thriving hotbed of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies also propelled the university’s leaders to offer the degree, according to Ogbonna. 

In October, the Richmond and Petersburg region received a federal designation as an Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (APM) Tech Hub that could lead to millions in future federal funding . 

“There’s federal and state support to say, ‘Are there ways we can be more efficient about drug discovery and manufacturing? And if so, can Virginia really be the epicenter for that?’” Ogbonna said. “In order for this to work, there’s got to be a really intentional and strategic focus on workforce development.” 

Eric Edwards, co-founder and CEO of Phlow, a Richmond-based, public benefit corporation that develops and domestically manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products, said VCU’s BSPS degree will be “fantastic [for students] who are seeking to contribute beyond just a basic science field in biology or chemistry or physics and trying to move more into an applied career pathway that may involve building medicines, or pharmaceutical products or treatments.”

Previously, these students would have needed to obtain a master’s degree or doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences or a doctor of pharmacy degree.

“I think what’s going to happen here is this program is going to unlock and equip students to really gain momentum and move beyond just a foundation that would serve them well into graduate studies, but actually a foundation that will enable and equip them to enter into the pharmaceutical industry and gain experience earlier,” Edwards said.

There’s plenty of work for these students in Richmond, according to Edwards. “This is definitely going to be another piece of that puzzle to really strengthen the future pipeline,” he said.

Sandro da Rocha, director of pharmaceutical engineering at VCU’s School of Pharmacy, will serve as inaugural director of the undergraduate pharmaceutical sciences program. 

Ogbonna feels confident students will be gravitate toward the degree. After all, they saw firsthand the impact scientists who quickly developed a vaccine for COVID-19 made on the world. 

“There’s renewed interest amongst the public about how medications are made,” he said.