Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering 

Overview

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The pharmaceutical industry is in great need of graduates with extensive knowledge of drug development, especially when it comes to drugs based on biological molecules, which is a global growth area in the pharmaceutical industry—e.g. in connection with age-related diseases, cancer, complex lifestyle diseases, autoimmune diseases, and certain infectious diseases.

Study programme focus

On the MSc in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) , you will learn how to design, develop, and test drugs in line with the methods applied by the pharmaceutical industry. You will acquire a broad range of competencies in all areas of pharma—e.g. diagnostics and nanotechnological treatment methods. Of course, the legal aspects relating to documentation, approval, and distribution of drugs also form part of the study programme.

The pharma technology core of the MSc programme consists of a number of mandatory courses covering the pharmaceutical drug discovery process, as well as high-level biology courses supplemented with in-depth methodology and technology courses.

‘Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering’ is offered on the basis of a new and original programme concept where project work in close collaboration with relevant pharmaceutical companies plays an important role. The companies propose specific issues for the project courses, allowing you to use your technical and scientific knowledge to solve research and development problems currently challenging the pharmaceutical industry. In this way, you will learn to solve ‘real-life cases’, while also expanding and specializing your knowledge and competencies at a theoretical level.

A clear MSc profile

‘Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering’ has a clear MSc profile. There are no predefined programmes or specializations—instead you can choose from a pool of technological specialization courses and the extensive range of elective courses offered by DTU. Therefore, you can design your own study programme and career, graduating with the pharmaceutical engineering profile that best matches your interests and background.

You can choose to focus on chemistry, biology, or the various aspects of the pharma process, including drug discovery and methods development, drug lead optimization and drug production. You can also choose to concentrate on product characterization, clinical testing, intellectual property rights (IPR), or post-marketing surveillance.

Career opportunities

Graduates are employed by Danish and international pharmaceutical companies, where they are involved in the various stages of drug development, including basic research and development as well as preclinical research in animal and cell models, and in production-related areas such as CMC production design and documentation, i.e. including the clinical stages. Examples of specific areas of expertise are drug delivery, vaccine development, development of antibodies for diagnostic, preventive and treatment purposes, biomarker discovery, validation and development of new assay methods. 

In the research and development area, pharmaceutical engineers typically find jobs as specialists or team leaders in large and medium-sized pharmaceutical, vaccine and diagnostic companies, or specialists in smaller companies in the same sectors. 

As a pharmaceutical engineer, you can also serve as a link between preclinical phases and the various phases of clinical testing, and you can carry out market- and commercial rights-related tasks in connection with product marketing, IPR, and monitoring in collaboration with financial and legal stakeholders. 

With an MSc degree in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering, you are furthermore qualified for jobs in the patent business.