Empowering women in pharma industry

Visakhapatnam: women and increasing their representation in the pharmaceutical industry, Pfizer Global Supply’s manufacturing unit in Visakhapatnam partnered with GITAM.

The officials mentioned on Wednesday that the graduation of the first batch of women as part of the 36-month-long ‘Pfizer Autonomous Teams’ (PAT) programme aimed at creating employment opportunities for women at the grassroots level.

The industry-academia collaboration is an initiative towards increasing women’s representation in science-based fields while providingthem the opportunity to ‘earn as they learn’. As part of the programme, Pfizer recruits’ girl students locally to join its manufacturing workforce, while supporting them in continuing their education at the institution. The first cohort of 44 women students graduated from the institution with a degree in B.Sc Chemistry, specialising in Microbiology. At present, over 340 women students are part of the PAT programme in Pfizer’s manufacturing unit, Visakhapatnam.

Commenting on the initiative, B Muralidhar Sharma, Vice President (Site Head), Pfizer said, “As part of our commitment to providing learning opportunities for local women and increasing their representation in science and healthcare, this empowering programme offers a unique opportunity to all participating students.”

Dr. Errol D’Souza, Vice Chancellor, GITAM said, “It is courageous of the students to balance work and regular education. By combining academic learning with hands-on industry experience, the programme showcases the power of academia-industry collaboration.”