Graduation Day at Pharmatech Academy

Graduation Day concluded the second edition of the Pharmatech Academy of the University of Naples Federico II. The ceremony was held at the Scampia campus where the Academy's activities take place.

Eighteen students, all master's graduates. who today finished the training course to which they gained access by passing a stringent selection. In fact, about 80 applications had been received following the publication of the call for applications.

"This is a unique pathway in Italy," said the rector of the University, Matteo Lorito, "and it is the product of a great investment by the Pnrr on the Center for Gene Therapy and RNA Drugs, a pathway that we wanted to start here in Naples in the Neapolitan Spoke and that allows us to put young people on the market with a really special training, carried out with 20 different companies, in a new and inclusive context which is our Scampia site. The Pharmatech Academy pathway," he added, "represents a bit of a synthesis of what Pnrr can do in the area of research by combining training and technology transfer. This Academy is one of Pnrr's most important legacies on issues that are an opportunity for Italy and for our young people."

Before the graduation ceremony, the students illustrated the projects carried out in their training structured in five months of classes and three months in the company. "Our young people," explained Bruno Catalanotti, Pharmatech Academy director, "have the opportunity to do internships in pharmaceutical companies among bigpharma, small companies, start-ups and, therefore, they all have the opportunity to experience corporate life. Therefore, attending this Academy is an extremely unique experience for them, and it is a path designed and conceived with pharmaceutical companies to add content and skills to the university education so that at the end they have a 360-degree profile with respect to what a company in the sector can need."

And thanks to the internship period, some of the Pharmatech graduates have already found employment. The first edition last year recorded a placement very close to 100 percent with young people now doing research in Research Centers or working in pharmaceutical companies.

"This Academy is innovative in content," pointed out the pro-rector, Angela Zampella, "because it is located in the chain of drug production with RNA technology, which is one of the goals of the Pnrr that brings Italy closer to international standards by training young people in a pharmaceutical field for which there was in fact no specialized training. Moreover, here we do not only do training but, through the Academy formula, there is also the whole soft skills training part."