Welcome!

I am currently nearing the end of Week 7 of working from home during the lockdown. If you had told me in February that this is what life was going to look like, I (and probably nobody else) would have believed you. Yet here we are.

To be honest with you, I am enjoying the experience of working from home consistently. I had a fairly brutal commute so this is a welcomed change. That being said, I recognize the fortune it is to still be employed during this time.

Astellas has been really great to their employees during the pandemic. We’re awarded excellent flexibility and Friday meetings are no longer permitted in order to give people even more flexibility with whatever unforeseen personal obligations have cropped up. Would I recommend working at Astellas during a pandemic? Yes.

We are currently anticipating returning to the office in June, so I will be back with an update at that time.

As for my experience in Market Access, it has been… challenging. A lot of my time has been dedicated to familiarizing myself with definitions and acronyms. I have started a Word document for myself where I store all of this sort of information as a reference guide. On top of that, the general reimbursement pathway is nuanced depending on the product and the jurisdiction. The added variables contribute to complexity. I won’t try to bore you any further so I’ll summarize by saying that it is (and continues to be) a learning experience.  I reckon it will be some time before I’m able to contribute to our team in a more strategic way.

The projects I have been involved in so far revolve around helping the Market Access team get more organized. There’s a lot going on and they needed someone to help them stay on top of everything. For lack of a better label, I am working as a project manager. The role itself isn’t as sexy as it sounds. The best part is just how much I am exposed to. I get to see and be involved in everything that’s happening. I am using the opportunity to learn as much as I can so that I can potentially set myself up to work as a consultant in the distant future.

Final Semester (January – April 2020)

In my last post, I shared with you that I was enrolled in my final two MBiotech courses: GAMBiT and Management of Technological Innovation. As we approached the end of the term, these courses were both ‘virtualized’. The final classes were delivered over Zoom and Blackboard Collaborate.

With respect to the courses themselves, they were very good. To anyone considering the MBiotech program, I would highly recommend GAMBiT. It is a small class with no more than ten students. The class has students from MBiotech, MMI (Master of Management and Innovation at UofT), and Immunology students from UofT, as well. In other words, you’re surrounded by a diverse group of students and that is reflected in the discussion. Every week, we are assigned case readings and are asked to prepare a two-page response to the cases taking a certain viewpoint. Then, we all meet at a cafe to discuss the cases and our responses. You learn a lot through these conversations, and it’s a humbling experience where you discover how much you have yet to learn about… well… science. It is great for building your network outside of your typical classmates, too.

The Management of Technological Innovation course is taught by Dr. Ruben Gaetani, who is a really great teacher. The course is lecture-based but with lots of class discussion. Every week, we discuss cases from the Harvard Business Review, which are interesting to read and often based on modern businesses that many of us are already familiar with (e.g. Spotify, Google, Tesla, etc.). This is a mandatory course, so you’re guaranteed to enjoy this one. It’s a good class to wrap up the program, as we’re able to put all of our knowledge together from previous classes during our discussions. Unsurprisingly, you and your MBiotech team are tasked with one final presentation for the course, which will be the last time you and your group will present together. Make it last.

As of today, April 30, 2020, I am officially done the program! I can certainly say that two years have literally flown by. I now have ‘M.Biotech’ after my last name, which is a flashy designation. Our convocation ceremony was canceled for obvious reasons, but we’re due to have a virtual convocation, an in-person convocation in the Fall, and an MBiotech-exclusive party in the Spring of 2021! I may not be able to attend all of these (due to a more recent opportunity that I will share here in a few weeks) but will try my best.

Also, I uploaded my first video onto YouTube where I discuss the MBiotech program in far more detail for anyone who’s interested.

That’s it for today’s update. I will upload another one in a few week’s time. Thanks for reading. Stay safe!