John “Jay” Sisco is the 2005 President-Elect of AAPS, and a member of the Executive Council (Board of Directors) and AAPS Officer. Before this, he has been a very active member of AAPS. He served on the Executive Council (Board of Directors)- Member-at-Large, for a 3 year term (elected position) from 2001-2003, was the Annual Meeting Program Chair for a 3 year term starting in 1998, served as the Education Committee Chair for 3 years (1995-1997), and was the Short Course Committee Chair from 1992-1994.

Dr. Sisco received a B.S. in 1976 in Chemistry from the University of Scranton, and a M.S. in Chemistry from Rutgers University in 1983. He then went on to get a M.S. (1987) and a Ph.D. (1989) in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas. After this, he received degrees in Management Training from the University of Michigan (2000) and Harvard Business School (2001).

Dr. Sisco has held many different excellent positions during his illustrious career, including his current position at PGRD/Pfizer as the Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Research & Development and Global PE/IP (Michigan). Before this, he was the Executive Director of Global Supply Chain (2003) as well as Executive Director of Pharmaceutical R&D (2001-2003) at the same company. His other jobs have included Senior Director Lead Optimization at Park-Davis/Warner Lambert (1999-2001), Vice President of R&D at Oread, Inc. (1995-1998), Vice President of R&D at Proceutics, Inc. (1995-1998), Director of Formulation Development (CytRx Corp., 1994-1995), Scientist and Senior Scientist- Solids and Dispersed Systems at Glaxo (1989-1994), Formulation Development and Analytical Chemistry Scientist positions at Boehringer Ingelheim (1980-1985), and Assistant Scientist positions in Analytical Chemistry at Schering Corp. (1976-1980).

1. What were the factors early on that drove you to choose a career in drug delivery?

There were really two events that happened, which led me down the path of a career in pharmaceutics and drug delivery. The first happened in my senior year in college, I finally figured out what sort of career I wanted to pursue. Entering my senior year, I really had no earthly clue what type of career path I was going to take once I finished my chemistry degree. At the beginning of my senior year, I learned that the chemistry department was instituting a new requirement in which each senior would have to do a two semester long independent research project. In speaking to the chemistry faculty about ideas for a project, one of my professors suggested developing an analytical method to rapidly screen, identify and quantify drugs of abuse. I decided to take this project because it would give me a great opportunity to learn more about the analytical techniques of the day (ancient by today’s standards) and learn about pharmaceuticals. By the end of the semester, it crystallized in my mind that I wanted to pursuer a career in analytical chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry. So with my BS degree in hand, it took several months but I finally started my career in the analytical chemistry area at Schering.

In the 5 years that I spent at Schering, I learned everything that I could possibly learn about a fledgling quantitative analytical tool called HPLC. I really wanted to learn more about methods development and validation utilizing HPLC and decided to take a position that would give me this opportunity at a company that was just starting up in the US, Boehringer Ingelheim. During the next 3 years, I became one of the resident experts in HPLC in the analytical department. Then the second event happened. One day the director of the product development department called me into his office and asked if I would be interested in a position in product development. He told me that his department really needed my analytical expertise and in exchange I would learn about product development; the areas of preformulation, formulation development, drug delivery and clinical supply manufacture. This learning experience over the next 2 years was so exciting to me that it opened up a completely different world, the world of drug delivery. I was so jazzed about what I was doing and learning. Through the encouragement of my supervisor, I made a decision to leave this great position and opportunity and pursue my Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry.

2. What were the critical turning point(s) that helped shape your career?

There were several events that helped shape my career. First was my decision to attend graduate school at the University of Kansas. This was the best fit for me based on their strong physical-pharmacy and drug delivery program. I had an incredible mentor, Dr. Valentino Stella, a world’s expert in prodrugs. I was also fortunate to be able to work on a project that touched on several different areas including analytical chemistry, physical-organic chemistry, synthesis and pharmacokinetics. I’ve always said that I would do graduate school over in a heartbeat because I loved it so much. It was a fantastic learning experience for the next steps in my career.

Another key turning point was my decision to join Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert in 1999, which ultimately had a big impact on my career. After being at Parke-Davis for just 6 days, the merger with Pfizer was announced. That merger and the subsequent Pfizer/Pharmacia merger opened up a number of doors of significant learning opportunities for me. First I was asked to head the Pharmaceutical R&D department where we are involved in product development from the pre-clinical stages to the development and scale-up of the commercial dosage form. In addition I have had the opportunity to spend about 6 months as part of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Supply Chain global work stream, which is responsible for ensuring seamless product manufacture, packaging and shipment to clinical sites from all Pfizer locations world wide. Most recently, I became involved in product enhancement and intellectual property, another new Pharmaceutical Sciences global work stream. Each of these has been an eye opening learning experience for me.

Finally, joining the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), the premier pharmaceutical association in the world was a key factor in my career development. After I joined AAPS, I became interested in volunteering some of my time to the Association. Over the years, I became active on and chaired many committees including those for short courses, education, and programming for the AAPS Annual Meeting. Although this took up a lot of my free time, it was fun for me as I very much enjoyed learning from some of the foremost pharmaceutical scientists in the world and interfacing with them to build cutting edge scientific programs and events for AAPS. Ultimately, my involvement in the Association led to my election to the AAPS Executive Council and most recently, President of AAPS for 2006. This ties in very nicely to one of Pfizer’s objectives to “influence the external environment”. I have received overwhelming support from Pfizer senior management to take on this responsibility.

3. What attributes do you think are essential for building a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry?

There are so many opportunities for a career in the pharmaceutical industry. It may be in one of the science areas such as synthetic chemistry, pharmacology, biology, pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutics, clinical, to name a few or in manufacturing, marketing, sales, regulatory affairs, human resources, finance, safety or another discipline within the business. Besides having a good solid background in whatever area of the pharmaceutical industry one chooses as a career, in my experience, there are three key attributes to build a successful career.

The first is having passion for what you do. Finding an area that you can really sink your teeth into and that you love really makes going to work every day fun. When you have fun at what you do, you work hard to get as much out of it as you possibly can. That’s passion. People that surround you in a job or challenge that you have passion about, whether they are colleagues or bosses, will be influenced by what you do and how you do it, which can open up a number of doors and opportunities over ones career.

The second and third attributes that I believe are critically important actually tie in nicely together. They are excellent communication skills and the ability to actively engage and work in a team environment. Communication in today’s environment of mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships is so important. One may be required to communicate study results, project status, timelines, budget information as examples, clearly and concisely through a number of media such as e-mail, teleconferences, videoconferences, and face-to-face meetings. The person that has highly effective communication skills will operate well in this environment. Communication is not only oral and written skills, but also a skill that is sometimes overlooked, listening. To me a person that has the ability to listen and really understand and discern a problem or someone’s point of view whether it is science or personally based is a very valuable commodity. These are the people that become outstanding scientists, mentors and coaches. So listen to understand.

Teamwork is also closely tied into communication. We no longer operate in an environment of “throwing something over a wall”. We are in an environment of multiple interfaces where scientists need to bring their contributions together and collaborate in a team environment so the results can be discussed and debated to move a project down the right path that will meet expected timelines. People who work well in team environments offer clear, concise and objective communication, are respectful of others opinions, and can make their points or decisions without being viewed as dictatorial. So combining strong communication with excellent teamwork skills can really distinguish an individual and open many doors of opportunity.

4. What advice would you give to someone starting a career in pharmaceutics and drug delivery?

Maybe you have notice in the answers to the first two questions I used the words learn and learning a number of times. My advice to someone starting a career in pharmaceutics and drug deliver is to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN! You have the opportunity to learn from a multitude of sources such as fellow students, professors, courses, training sessions, mentors and coaches to name a few. Use them. Ask questions. Provide your input and opinions. The more you learn, the more valuable you are to any organization.

Finally, don’t be afraid to take on new challenges, big ones or small ones. Each can be a learning experience that will teach you about something, someone, or yourself. Whether you are successful or not in these challenges, you will learn. Never get discouraged…learning is invaluable.