Best Practices in Funding US Fellowships: Using Pharma Grants Effectively to Support Post-Graduate Education

Industries Profiled:
Health Care; Pharmaceutical; Biotech; Manufacturing


Companies Profiled:
Eisai; Verastem Oncology; Allergan; Astellas; EMD Serono; Sanofi Genzyme; Mallinckrodt; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Lundbeck; Vifor Pharma

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 10 Medical Affairs and grant leaders from 10 leading biopharmaceutical companies in this research through a benchmarking survey. All responses were US-focused.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Functional group that funds fellowship grants
• Use of dedicated budget for fellowships
• Total fellowship funding as a percentage of total IME budget
• Fellowship activities funded through grants
• Funding of individual fellowships vs. an overall fellowship program
• Fellowship application & review process

• Fellowship Budget and Funding Trends:

• Medical Affairs funds US fellowship programs through IME program: The 9 companies in the study that fund fellowships all have Medical Affairs funding their program (1 company in the study does not fund fellowships).
  
  
  • All 9 companies fund fellowships through their Independent Medical Education (IME) program.
    

• Fellowship Application and Approval Process:

• Fellowship application process is public and often follows process for other grant types: Five companies (78%) make their process for requesting fellowship grant public and use same process as other grant types; 2 companies make the application process public but use a different process than other grants.
  
  
  • Most companies (89%) use the same group to review and approve fellowships and other grants.
  • Quality of the [education] training environment was the most-used evaluation criteria for fellowships.

I.	Executive Summary	pgs. 3-9
	Study Objective and Methodology
	Study Participants
	Key Findings
II.	Fellowship Funding and Activities	pgs. 9-15
	Funding Function
	Funding Source
	Dedicated Budget
	Fellowship Support as Percentage of IME budget
	Funding Limits and Activities
	Funding Individual Fellowships vs. Fellowship Programs
III.	Fellowship Application and Review Process	pgs. 16-19
	Application Process
	Review Process
	Fellowship Evaluation Criteria
	Institutional Partnerships
	Best Practices

• Organizational group(s) funding US fellowship programs
• Whether fellowship programs are funded through Independent Medical Education (IME) program or not
• Presence of a dedicated budget to support US fellowship programs
• Expected increase or decrease within the next 2 years in dedicated US fellowship programs budget
• Funding for US fellowships as a percentage of total independent medical education budget
• Limits to the type of fellowship-related activities that can be funded through a US fellowship grant
• Activities that can be funded through fellowship grant
• Funding individual fellowships vs. fellowship programs

• Fellowship program application and review process with program evaluation criteria
• Institutional partnership support with accredited academic medical centers
• Activities included in the US partnership agreements
• Group/function(s) providing the funding for US institutional partnerships
• Best practices to enhance the effectiveness and/or impact of a US fellowship program