Our previous and current fellows have participated in several very exciting projects and interacted with key stakeholders in psychiatric drug development at Janssen Research & Development.

Eligibility

The successful applicant must have an MD/DO or a PhD. The MD applicant will be either board certified or eligible for the ABPN certification exam at the start of the fellowship, have completed four years of psychiatry residency training in an ACGME-accredited program, and be able to obtain a license to practice in Pennsylvania. The PhD applicant should have their primary training or research focus in neuroscience or pharmacology.

Start Date

July 1, 2023

Appointment

We will hire one fellow per year. The fellow will be appointed as a junior faculty at the level of instructor or assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine.

Salary and Benefits

The selected fellow is paid $90,000 annually. The fellow may earn additional income by providing additional clinical coverage such as weekend rounding. Benefits are offered through Drexel University College of Medicine.

Fellowship Structure

This is a 12-month fellowship that provides the opportunity for the fellow to work in both an academic and pharmaceutical setting. The fellow will spend 70% to 80% time in the pharmaceutical setting, and 20% to 30% time in the Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine. The fellow will be required to attend selected courses offered through the highly regarded graduate program in Drug Discovery and Development. The pharmaceutical setting will be at Janssen Research & Development in Titusville, New Jersey.

Pharmaceutical experiences will include one or more of the following: clinical development, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance and other relevant areas.

Upon completion of the program, the fellow is expected to:

• Understand and apply various clinical trial design strategies especially in psychiatric disorders
• Know how to develop protocols, obtain appropriate approvals, recruit and monitor patients or subjects, collect and analyze data, and prepare a manuscript from the academic perspective
• Understand principles of clinical research, including important concepts of good clinical practice
• Conduct strategic reviews of the medical literature and the competitive environment to identify data and educational gaps to enhance patient care
• Gain understanding of clinical operations in pharmaceutical trials
• Gain understanding of FDA requirements and regulations
• Understand the concept and importance of life cycle management
• Participate in medical review of promotional materials
• Participate in pharmacovigilance and drug safety evaluations

Clinical time at Drexel may include direct patient care (inpatient and/or outpatient setting), teaching and supervising residents and medical students.

Supervision

Supervision will be provided by pharmaceutical physicians or scientists while at the pharmaceutical company. Since the fellow will be appointed as a faculty member, there will be no required educational supervision. However, mentorship will be provided by the senior faculty members in the Department of Psychiatry, and the Drug Discovery & Development and clinical research graduate programs at Drexel.

Program Administrative Structure:

Program Director: Wei Du, MD, Professor and Academic Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Janssen Site Director: Carla Canuso, MD, Senior Director, Neuroscience Clinical Development, Janssen Research & Development, LLC
Supervising Faculty: David Bennett, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine
Program Coordinator: Leinaala Zettlemoyer, Program Manager, General Psychiatry Residency Program, Department of Psychiatry

Advisory Committee

In order to develop a high-quality program, we have established an Advisory Committee. This committee consists of three senior medical directors or VPs from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, three Drexel faculty who are experienced drug developers and served as chief scientific officer and/or senior vice president in several pharmaceutical companies, and the senior vice dean for research at Drexel University College of Medicine.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit CV and a personal statement (one page) to program director, Wei Du, MD at wd26@drexel.edu.