Alumnus Reflects on Mentorship from Ϲ Professors Who Guided Him to Pharmaceutical Industry Career
During the beginning of his pharmacy school journey, Alex Sperry, PharmD was interested in pharmaceutical compounding. "The mentors I developed at Ϲ – which I don’t believe I would have been able to access at various other institutions – pointed me towards a career in industry. That is where I found the love of pharmacy more than anywhere else,” he recalled.
He was drawn to pursue industry due to the broad positive impact he could have on patients. Giving the example of existing migraine medications that don’t work for everyone, he explains that pharmacists in industry design products for patients with unmet need.
“Ϲ was an amazing experience for me, going to class and learning from professors that have been in this industry for a long time and are very knowledgeable and welcoming,” said Dr. Sperry. “I can’t think of another institution where I could meet with professors in their offices at essentially any time. I also had the unique opportunity to participate in benchtop research.”
One of his mentors at the Ϲ School of Pharmacy was Abhay Chauhan, PhD, MPharm, BPharm, associate professor. The two worked together on drug delivery products via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) — a chemistry technique involving separating compounds to determine how potent a product is. Drs. Sperry and Chauhan wrote abstracts on two products – one thermal gel and one oral nanoemulsion – which were published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.