Why the $48K BMS pipeline is beneficial for Rutgers students

Rutgers is one of the leading research universities with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Being located in New Jersey, a worldwide hub of the pharmaceutical industry, Rutgers enjoys good relations with major pharmaceutical companies like J&J, BMS, GSK, Pfizer and loads more. As part of a research community, Rutgers continuously collaborates with industry leaders to carry out research work in conjunction with several departments like CBE and MAE – who in turn provide fellowship opportunities to many Rutgers University Pharmacy school students. According to a NJ.com piece, Rutgers recently made a decision to allow BMS build a pipeline beneath a rarely used corner of its Cook campus. This will only help strengthen the relations between the two.

According to the report, Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Rutgers $48,000 for using its property to build an underground pipeline and a metering station on the campus. The construction will help serve the company facility on Route 1 in New Brunswick, NJ. The agreement gives BMS a permanent easement to use a .2-acre corner of campus to construct the pipeline and build a metering station surrounded by a fence. In addition to that, the company has been granted authorization to use an additional quarter acre of campus property for construction purpose. The deal was given nod and voted on last week by the Rutgers board of Governors.

In another major announcement from BMS, it is closing down a few of its facilities nationwide including the 433-acre campus in Hopewell Township and Bloomsbury, NJ. It will consolidate its resources and employees for a better, effective management. It is expanding its existing facilities, including the one in New Brunswick. I believe this might be one of the reasons for the necessity of a new pipeline to meet the future demands.

“Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to make the right investments to continue to deliver on the promise of our pipeline and to bring transformational medicines to patients, today and in the future,” said  Giovanni Caforio, M.D, chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Not only will this deal bring money to Rutgers, it will enhance the goodwill between the two. The expansion of its facility near the campus will benefit the neighborhood and enhance the R&D collaboration between the two. BMS is also currently one of the industrial partners in C-SOPS research facility at Rutgers, an undertaking in which the department in which I initially enrolled, the Chemical & Biochemical Engineering department is heavily integrated.

The elevated relations between the two can result in more engagement on part of BMS during Career Fairs, thus directly benefiting the university students. For international students like me, it is crucial that companies like BMS, which provide the much needed visa sponsorship, have positive relations with the university. It can also bring in the much-needed Private grants for R&D purposes and help maintain Rutgers the tag of being a leading Research University. The grants result in expansion of existing research facilities and undertaking of new research projects where students of CBE and similar departments can gain more research experience, which I believe would be an important factor in their future job search.

The Pharmaceutical industry has been scrutinized heavily in the near past for every steps they took. There has been unrest against the outsourcing of jobs in the developing economies. Unrealistic price hikes by a few in the industry didn’t help the environment. Add the outcries of the environmentalists against the construction of pipelines and the loss of public trust in the Pharma and Chemical industry in general, I expected a bit of resistance against the deal. But its safe to say now that the deal is as solid as it can get.

All in all, this is a win-win situation for both Rutgers and BMS. Let’s hope that similar arrangements keep popping up in the future that can bring faint hope to a scared student in the gloomy job market still feeling the pressure of recession.