Touro College of Pharmacy

Touro College of Pharmacy provides students with ample opportunity to serve the community through programs in education, research and scholarship, in keeping with Touro’s mission. Every year, they deliver hundreds of influenza vaccines and work tirelessly to help underserved communities. This past year, as the pandemic raged, Touro College of Pharmacy launched a COVID-19 vaccine clinic as well as a screening program.

A TASTE OF OUR UNIQUE COURSE OFFERINGS

As part of our interdisciplinary approach, we offer a course in cultural competency where the Pharm.D. students team up with the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine students, working together in groups and learning how to navigate the shifting cultural waters in order to provide the best medical care to their patients. With a focus on the consequences of health disparities and their relationship to proper medical treatment, our students are more sensitive to these issues, which is vital to their future success as pharmacists. At the end of this course, our students have a greater appreciation of each other’s roles and areas of expertise within healthcare.

Biotechnology entrepreneurship is another recent offering that exposes students to the growing field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical healthcare through expert lectures from faculty with industrial experience and CEOs from the private sector. This course covers FDA regulatory approval, intellectual property portfolios and evaluating business models.

To prepare students for pharmaceutical and biotechnology careers, the College partners with large pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Bayer, Genzyme, Bristol Meyers Squibb and Pfizer, for student rotations. WHERE DO STUDENTS GO FROM HERE? Our students are highly trained in pharmacology, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, physical assessment, drug information and pharmacotherapy and are poised to provide medication management to patients in the community, long-term care or hospital setting. More than 30 percent of our graduates pursue post-graduate training and enter into the American Society of Health Systems Residency Match Program or apply for pharmaceutical industry fellowships.

REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE IS KEY Our exceptional curriculum offers students 54 weeks, or nine pharmacy rotations, so students are exposed to numerous settings and have more opportunities to put what they learn into practice. Students may obtain meaningful elective rotations at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the World Health Organization (WHO), Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While many graduates become community pharmacists or hospital pharmacists, students also pursue exciting career opportunities at pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies.

NEW FACULTY ADDED TO EXPAND STUDENT HORIZONS Further expanding students’ horizons, superb faculty have been recruited to augment the excellent mentoring and broad pharmacy education students already receive—with specialties in infectious disease, oncology, drug information, solid organ transplant, psychiatry, critical care, cardiology, internal medicine and ambulatory care. The faculty’s broad experience in hospital, retail and pharmaceuticalbiotechnology settings enables the program to prepare students for exciting, real-world careers.

SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY The school offers ample opportunity to students to serve the community through programs in education, research and scholarship, in keeping with Touro’s mission. They have helped with recovery efforts in Haiti, delivered thousands of influenza vaccines and traveled for global practice experiences in both Africa and Asia to help underserved communities. The College also provides a very strong interprofessional learning environment with direct access to Touro healthcare professional programs in medicine and the allied health sciences.

Paul J. Isikwe, Pharm.D.

Teva Pharmaceiticals, U.S. Medical Affairs Division

With do-or-die determination, Paul J. Isikwe left his hometown of Houston and headed for New York City, where he had been accepted at Touro College of Pharmacy. “It was either medicine or pharmacy for me,” says Isikwe, now 34. “I did not like even the sight of blood, so pharmacy it was.”

After graduating from Touro, Isikwe completed a two-year Postdoctorate Fellowship. Then he joined Teva Pharmaceuticals, where today Isikwe is part of the Value, Evidence, and Outcomes team within the U.S. Medical Affairs Division. “It’s so rewarding to be in the role I’m in,” says Isikwe, who lives with his wife and infant daughter in Providence, Rhode Island. “It involves analyzing clinical trial data, healthcare economics and outcomes research solutions that improve patient care. For me, it’s very dynamic. Every single day is different.”

Isikwe’s journey to Teva started at Touro College of Pharmacy in Fall 2012, the very same year the school graduated its first ever incoming class. “I loved the newness, the possibilities,” he says. “There was no red tape, no bureaucracy. The faculty and dean were open to our ideas and energy.” While a student, Isikwe was instrumental in bringing two student chapter pharmacy organizations to the school. Now Isikwe, who graduated in 2016, is back on campus, this time as an adjunct professor. He created and teaches a course called Introduction to the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Isikwe always knew he didn’t want to be what he calls a “counter pharmacist,” which is the prime reason he chose Touro, which focuses on all aspects of opportunities open to those with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. “I get bored easily,” explains Isikwe. “My professors understood who I was and where I wanted to be and helped me get there with advice, experience and support, which put me in the place where I am now.”