Turning into an independent country in 1965, Singapore, a country only 710km2This year's GSK Taiwan Medical Student Scholarship Program wanted to deliver a number of messages to us: GSK not only manufactures drugs but also focuses on new drug and vaccines development as well as charity. Therefore, one of the most important objectives was to show us what their research and developmental department was doing. Therefore, this trip included many lectures and visits. The first thing we learned was why a pharmaceutical company is interested in a certain diseases. Most of the time, it is profit-oriented, but sometimes is done for charitable reasons, such as developing a malaria vaccine for Africans. Secondly, we learned how to create hormones, antibodies and some compounds to block or depress abnormal gene expression or signal transduction. Next, we learned how to make the compound into be pills or a solution for injection. Finally, we learned the importance of sufficient clinical trial time to ensure the drug will be safe and efficacious for the patient. After the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, the drug can be sold in the long run. From these lectures, we know the whole drug development process and relative topics.
This program provided us a lot of opportunities to communicate with the doctors and researchers at GSK and to learn their research interests as well as their motivation for working in a pharmaceutical company. We also spent a lot of time sharing ideas with other participants and discussing our studies, interests and what we want to do in the future. This really helped me learn something new and different.
Besides having academic activities in the daytime, we had a relaxed and pleasurable time at night. Every supper was very delicious and contained a variety of flavors from different cuisines such as Chinese food, Thai dishes, Indian curries, and Malay cakes. We went to Clark Quay to enjoy a night club, we threw peanut shells at each other while drinking Singapore Sling (a kind of famous cocktail) in Long bar, and we took a fascinating tour to see nocturnal animals at Night Safari.
The most interesting course for me was the visit to Tuas industrial park. The lecturer was perfect because his lecture and orientation were so vivid and clear. It was very easy for me to understand why neuroscience is promising and what difficulties GSK must do their best to conquer. By the way, the laboratory was very clean and tidy and it is difficult to believe that it had already been in operation for a few years. I also liked the visit to Biopolis a lot. It was my first time to visit a drug factory. The vaccine factory was made up of a lot of pipes and machines; although there was a lecture before the visit, I was unable to tell where the pipeline was leading to.
Compared with other participants, I had had less experience in the lab. Some techniques and basic concepts required for drug development I had learned in my high school experience in the lab and biochemistry class in my second year of medical school. However, thanks to many basic science lectures, such as good clinical practice and science of drug development, I developed a more complete knowledge of the process. Due to the language barrier, I still lost some points and could not understand everything with ease. I suggest that the program could provide Powerpoint slides before the lecture; it would be much more helpful for us in learning.
By joining this program, I learned many options to choose in the future besides being a clinician. I know more about the organization of an international pharmaceutical company as well. It was very worthwhile to take this trip :)
