April 28, 2021
The delegation of Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy (WLAP) held its first Post-graduate Recruitment Talk at Zhengzhou University on 17th April.
Professor Mu Wang, Executive Dean of the Academy of Pharmacy, Ms. Junzhe Guan, Manager of the Administrative Office, and Ms. Hailu Hou, BD & PR Manager of Academy of Pharmacy met about 60 Year 3 and Year 4 undergraduate students interested in pursuing their advanced degrees in biological and pharmaceutical sciences and gave three talks on the topic of “The Cutting-Edge Progress of Life Science Technology and the Prediction of Future Application”, “The Experience of Pursuing a Post-graduate Study in WLAP”, and “An Introduction of the Two New Post-graduate Programmers of the Academy”.
Professor Wang says, biopharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest-growing industries globally. In nearly thirty years, the average annual sale of the biopharmaceuticals has been increasing at a rate of 25%-30%. Meanwhile, the development of the biopharmaceuticals in China also grows quickly, but there is a problem that cannot be ignored.
“I always say that our difficulty lies in the lack of innovation,” says Professor Wang. “Many of our medicines are “me-too” medicines that are made based on the existing drug targets and well known mechanisms. Lack of innovation is a bottleneck in the development of our medicine.”
A survey of PharmaProjects shows that, in terms of the number of innovative drug products among the world’s top 25 pharmaceutical companies in 2019, the US ranked the first with the proportion of 44%, and Japan the second, with 20%. Besides, countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the UK etc. are all on the list, however, China is not.
“If China wants to be a world-power in the area of innovative medicine, the bottleneck of innovation must be overcome,” adds Professor Wang. “Where is innovation coming from? From the basic research and development; and most of the fruitful basic research come from universities and research institutes.”
Professor Wang says, Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy will focus on cutting-edge and prospective research, therefore, especially in the translational medicine aspect, such as new treatment strategies and novel drug developments including nucleic acid-, antibody-, vaccine-based drugs. At the same time, the curriculum will cover topics that are closely connected with the biopharmaceutical enterprises, such as Project Management, Pharmacy Administration etc., to integrate the scientific research and the application.
Ms. Junzhe Guan, Manager of the Administrative Office says, with the great support of the Suzhou Industrial Park government and many biopharmaceutical enterprises, the Post-graduate programmes in Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy will provide students with a wide range of opportunities in the cutting-edge research topics in the industry, the internship and the employment. “Through the multi-cooperation, we hope to give our students a new learning experience, and when they graduate, they can have the strong scientific research ability as well as practical skills,” says she.
The new Post-graduate programmes of the Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy in the fall semester are now open for application. The programmes are taught in English, and there are two programmes available: MRes Medicinal Chemistry and MSc Applied Statistics, with flexible teaching forms as the full-time and the part-time. The application deadline is June 15, 2021.
“I hope we can cultivate high-end innovative and versatile talents,” says Professor Wang. “As the so-called versatile talent, the students shall have a wider range of knowledge. Because if his/her range of knowledge is narrow, there is no way to innovate.”
The series of Post-graduate Recruitment Talk of Wisdom Lake Academy of Pharmacy is still in progress. It started from Henan province in central China and will continue to take place in provinces such as Anhui, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Sichuan etc.
By Huan Zhu, Photos by Hailu Hou
April 28, 2021