Healthcare Science Week 2021: Yemisi, Junior Scientific Advisor

By Yemisi Adebanjo, Junior Scientific Advisor

​To celebrate Healthcare Science Week 2021, Yemisi Adebanjo, a Junior Scientific Advisor at Novartis within the graduate programme, shares her story on how she began her career in science – an industry traditionally dominated by men.

Why did you apply for a graduate internship at Novartis?
Novartis is a global company known to millions worldwide for providing effective medications to improve patients’ quality of life and standard of care.

For a long time, I was interested in medical affairs, especially in the Medical Science Liaison (MSL) role – this is the role I will progress into after the graduate programme. MSLs are therapy area experts skilled in interpreting complex scientific data and maintaining relationships with key opinion leaders in order to identify unmet needs in patient management and bring this insight back into the company where the medical team will work together to fill this gap.

Medical affairs is a gateway between the pharmaceutical industry, clinical development and the wider medical community in terms of providing medical education and working cross-functionally with a shared goal to deliver the brand strategy.

Before I sent my application, I reached out to the current and previous Junior Scientific Advisors to get a better understanding of the role. From my discussions, I realised that the Junior Scientific Advisor position would be great for someone who has no prior medical affairs experience.

For someone who wants to develop, grow their knowledge and understand the pharmaceutical industry, work closely with medical advisors and MSLs in medical led projects, support the commercial team and eventually transition into a medical advisor or MSL themselves; this is what ultimately led me to apply for the Junior Scientific Advisor position.

What were the highlights of your internship?
The highlight was seeing myself grow in confidence and knowledge about medical affairs, which has allowed me to contribute and become more involved in certain medical projects.

I worked with a great team that understood that I was completely out of my comfort zone when I first started. They really supported, guided and helped me every step of the way which allowed me to develop my skills such as project management, public speaking, critically appraising clinical papers and understanding the haematology therapy area in greater depth.

What advice can you give to aspiring graduates who may be interested in applying for a Novartis graduate internship?
Research into what medical affairs is, the roles within medical affairs and how this links with other roles in the company (such as Commercial, Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), Regulatory, and Medical information).

Do your research on Novartis and its global product portfolio and reach out to people who are in the Novartis graduate internship (past and present) on LinkedIn. This will give you a better understanding of the role and the job expectations.

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