School of Pharmacy Hosts Inaugural Pharmapreneurship® Summit

Event highlights past, present, and future of School of Pharmacy’s trademarked initiative and brings together leaders in academia, pharmacy practice, research, industry, and community service

By Emily Bleiweis
October 22, 2024

On Oct. 8, experts from health care, higher education, and business came together at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) for the School’s Inaugural Pharmapreneurship® Summit. The day-long event brought thought leaders to Pharmacy Hall to engage with the School community, to propose bold and innovative ideas to address challenges and opportunities for the pharmacy world, and to celebrate the School’s trademarked Pharmapreneurship initiative.

“We at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy have always been pharmapreneurs,” said Sarah L.J. Michel, PhD, dean of the School of Pharmacy and professor of pharmaceutical sciences in her opening remarks. “Founded in 1841, many of our early graduates ran their own pharmacies, combining entrepreneurial activities with patient care. Others founded companies such as Merck Sharp & Dohme and Noxzema.”

“More recent graduates have launched organizations that have had a tangible and transformative impact on pharmaceutical manufacturing, scientific discovery, on our nation’s health care system, and on the most pressing problems that we face,” she continued. “As our alumni have led in pharmapreneurship, so do our faculty, developing new models of health care delivery, discovering new drugs, optimizing clinical trials using big data, and serving communities, both locally and nationally.”

Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), welcomed attendees to the School and applauded Michel for her focus on pharmapreneurship. “This program is built on the past but is about the future,” he said. “Dean Michel wants to put pharmapureneurship on the map, to super charge it, to apply it to every aspect of the School.”

UMSOP educated and graduated pharmapreneurs long before pharmapreneurship was formalized in 2017. Since then, the School has invested heavily in pharmapreneurship, creating scholarships for students, developing a pharmapreneurship pathway in the Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum, endowing a professorship, hosting student business pitching competitions, and facilitating entrepreneurial activities and events for faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

The Summit featured keynote presentations from both a higher education expert and a UMSOP alumnus, faculty, alumni, and collaborator panels, and a student business pitch competition.

The faculty panel featured pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, and pharmaceutical health services researchers from the School who through their work and contributions exemplify the vision for Pharmapreneurship. Panelist Joga Gobburu, PhD, MBA, professor of practice, sciences, and health outcomes research (P-SHOR) and director of the Center for Translational Medicine, is the 2024 recipient of UMB’s David J. Ramsay Entrepreneur of the Year Award for co-founding two companies that support pharmaceutical scientists, health care providers, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory agencies. C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, professor of P-SHOR, is executive director of the PATIENTS Program, an interdisciplinary research team of community partners and researchers housed at the School of Pharmacy that works to change the way we think about research by creating a path for health equity and engaging people from all communities, especially those from underserved and minority populations, in every step of the patient and community-engaged research process.

The alumni panel featured a range of UMSOP graduates, including Tina Bayuse, PharmD ’00, RPh, FAsMA; chief pharmacy officer for Johnson Space Center; Fahim Faruque, PharmD ’18, MS, founder of Stealth Startup; Brian Hose, PharmD ’06; owner of Sharpsburg Pharmacy and CEO of EPIC Rx, and Ritu Lal, PhD ’96,  CEO and co-founder of GEn1E Lifesciences.

When Bayuse graduated from UMSOP’s Doctor of Pharmacy program nearly 25 years ago, the term “pharmapreneurship” wasn’t being used. But the concept itself was already being practiced and fostered at the School, she said.

While the education at UMSOP was top notch, Bayuse said, it was the opportunity to ask questions and grow and develop her skills that really helped her get to where she is today.

“The part that I don’t think you can actually quantify is the magic that is the soft skills that the School allowed us to build,” Bayuse said. “We were encouraged to have the confidence to know what we didn’t know. That perspective breeds folks to go out into the real world with that in their back pocket. And it allows that to be fostered in the next generation as well. Soft skills and being able to foster and have that curiosity are very important in pharmapreneurship.”

A panel of esteemed School of Pharmacy collaborators shared their thoughts on entrepreneurship, pharmapreneurship, and the need for bold and innovative action in health care, business, and higher education.

“Pharmapreneurship is compelling, and it’s exciting that the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy is at the forefront of all pharmacy schools in pushing entrepreneurship, said Alex Tristani, PhD, dean of the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business. “It’s important to take initiative, and there is real power in the combination of faculty and students working with businesses and the government to grow their ideas.”

“Health care around the world has gotten unfathomably expensive, and there is a lot of work to do to fix the health care system,” said John Banta, MS, MBA, president and managing director of BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, the corporate venture fund serving 36 BlueCross Blue Shield Plans and other licensees with more than $1 billion in assets under its management. “Difficult entrenched problems are not best solved by executives, but by innovators like those here.”

Prabhudev Konana, PhD, MBA, is dean of the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, with which the School of Pharmacy has a dual Doctor of Pharmacy/MBA degree. In speaking of the partnership between UMSOP and the Smith School, he said: “Real ideas come from health and science schools which often need business schools for ideation, planning, and execution. It’s a natural partnership for our two schools.”

Amir Ansari is co-founder and executive director of XFoundry@UMD, and an entrepreneur, technology expert, and inventor with more than 70 U.S. and foreign patents. Through XFoundry@UMD, students engage in immersive competitions and projects aimed at cultivating the mindset and skills of a founder. He previewed a future competition in partnership with the School of Pharmacy.

“We are hoping to collaborate with the School on a competition focused on chronic care management in people over the age of 65, where you see lots of non-compliance with medications,” he said. “School of Pharmacy students can take a novel approach to solve that very big problem by combining their efforts with other schools and other collaborative thinkers to deliver a solution the market hasn’t seen yet.”

Holly DeArmond, MBA, executive director of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers at the Rice Alliance at Rice University, gave the morning keynote. Speaking about her own experiences and career as well as looking at the larger higher education landscape, DeArmond focused on the importance of entrepreneurship being woven into every aspect of UMSOP, as opposed to just one competition or one course.

This summit, she said, is the “start of something really important.”

“Entrepreneurship can be scary,” DeArmond said. “But entrepreneurship is more than just an intellectual pursuit. It challenges founders emotionally and physically. Those who thrive do so by surrounding themselves with supportive startup communities like this one. With that support, they really do increase their chance of success and gain valuable lessons along the way.”

Kun Yang, PharmD ’15, CEO and co-founder of Pricklee Cactus Water, gave the afternoon keynote address. Yang, who was featured on the ABC show Shark Tank, said the pharmacy industry has always been made up of creatives and changemakers.

“When I learned about pharmapreneurship, I was so enthused, because in many ways, this initiative brings us full circle. It’s what pharmacists have and always will be, which is entrepreneurs,” he said, later adding, “The DNA which we’ve based our entire industry on has been founded upon critical thinking, problem solving, resourcefulness, value to society, [and] customer service.”

The Summit also included the second annual Pharmapreneur’s Market Competition and Natalie D. Eddington Pharmapreneurship Award for Health Care Innovation. Three student groups pitched pharmapreneurial ideas, ranging from an AI-based patient counseling training program for health education students and a kit that provides resources, next steps, and information for those who have suffered from sexual violence to an app that helps parents with children’s medication dosing.

 The competition was created for UMSOP’s student pharmapreneurs to compete for the chance to turn their ideas into a business through funds from the Natalie D. Eddington Pharmapreneurship Award for Health Care Innovation, which was established in 2023 by John Gregory, BSP ’76, a UMSOP Founding Pharmapreneur and alumnus, in honor of Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP, UMSOP’s former dean and a professor at the school. Gregory also is the board chair and CEO of Gregory Pharmaceutical Holding, Inc., and founder of King Pharmaceuticals.

The $100,000 pitch competition fund is thought to be the largest of its kind at schools of pharmacy across the nation. This year’s winner will be announced at a future date.

“At the Summit we explored the dynamic intersection of pharmapreneurship, education, health care, and research—pillars that are not just shaping the future of our field, but also redefining the way we think about the role of the pharmacist, drug discovery and development, and health outcomes research in society,” said Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, PharmD, MS, FAPhA, FNAP, the Felix Gyi Endowed Memorial Professor in Pharmapreneurship, associate dean for clinical services and practice transformation, executive director of the Center for Innovative Pharmacy Solutions, and director of the Maryland P³ Program. “By combining our diverse expertise and perspectives with a Pharmapreneurship mindset, we can drive meaningful change as pharmapreneurs.”

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