MBA students eye Rutgers Business School's biopharmaceutical case competition as a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of the pharmaceutical business and make valuable connections.

The competition will require the student teams to work on a marketing problem created by Rutgers faculty members. At least seven teams will spend a week reviewing an original case and then present their work to a panel of judges from the sponsoring companies.

The first place team will receive $6,000 in prize money. The second place team will win a prize of $3,000, and the team that places third will receive $1,500.

Teams representing Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, Notre Dame, Penn State, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business are signed up to participate. Rutgers Business School will have a team of four students competing in the event.

Rema Bitar, a second-year Pharmaceutical Management MBA student who is helping to organize the event, said the case competition is a "great forum for students to showcase their knowledge and abilities."

The competition takes place from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., culminating with an awards dinner.

As the case competition is occurring, Rutgers Business School will host Pharma Student Day, a day-long event featuring a series of speakers from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Pharma Student Day, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., is open to all students, alumni as well as industry professionals.

"Pharma Student Day is a way to involve the rest of the school and add to the networking opportunity," said Jacob Schnipper, another second-year Pharmaceutical Management MBA student and event organizer.

Both events highlight the strength of the Pharmaceutical Management Program and Rutgers Business School's close ties to the industry.

New Jersey, once known as the nation's medicine chest because of its large concentration of drug-making companies, continues to be a hub for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Rutgers Business School's nine-year-old Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for the Study of Pharmaceutical Management Issues has strengthened the school's ties to some of the world's leading drug and device companies through symposiums, joint research and education programs designed to develop the next generation of leaders in the industry. 

Mahmud Hassan, director of the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for the Study of Pharmaceutical Management Issues, said one of the biggest attractions for students at the case competitions is the potential to network.

While well-established case competitions at Kellogg, Wake Forest and Louisville are sponsored by one pharmaceutical company, Rutgers has sponsorship from eight – Bayer, Janssen, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Campbell Alliance and Herspiegel Consulting.   

"That's a unique opportunity for students," Hassan said.

Merck, which has its world headquarters in New Jersey, identified a number of students during the case competition at Rutgers last year and ended up hiring some of them, he said.

That sort of opportunity also explains why some of the schools were so eager to participate.

Bitar said some of the teams had identified the Rutgers case competition as one they wanted to attend even before the official invitations went out. "It's a sign that we did a good job the first time around," she said.

For Bitar and Schnipper, it's also proof that Rutgers can compete against teams from top-ranked business schools and also stand with the hosts of the more established case competitions.

"It gives us a lot of prestige to be in the company of Wake Forest and Kellogg," Schnipper said.

RSVP to attend Student Pharma Day at [email protected] or 973-353-1016.

MEDIA: To learn the results of Rutgers Business School's biopharmaceutical case competition or to find out more about Student Pharma Day, please contact Susan Todd at Rutgers Business School's Communications & Marketing Department: [email protected] or 973-353-5224.

SOURCE Rutgers Business School