Gaining experience in clinical research and biotechnology
Over the summer, Durham University student Mimi Beale completed an internship with us. In this article, she reflects upon her experiences and what she learned.
As a student at Durham University studying a joint honours degree in Psychology and Biology, I was eager to learn more about the life sciences sector through a summer internship before my final year. When OMP offered me the internship, I was not entirely sure what to expect and was slightly nervous about making a good impression on my first day. However, it was not long before I felt very comfortable asking questions and getting involved wherever possible. Now as I reflect on my time at OMP, I can safely say that I have really enjoyed my time there. Most of my time has been spent working with Dr Elanor Hinton (Ella), Head of Clinical Research and Operations, although I have also helped manufacturing, learning more about the Sirona manufacturing process and how the company has grown in the last few years.
Clinical research:
Spending time with Ella has been extremely interesting and insightful. I got involved in the ongoing phase 2 clinical trial by attending both weekly meetings with individual trial sites and monthly cross-site meetings. These meetings opened my eyes to the complexities of clinical trials and how their delivery is a real team effort.
To further my understanding of clinical trials, I helped in the planning of the phase 3 pivotal trial starting next year. Specifically, I researched FDA diversity requirements for clinical trials and the demographics of the countries where OMP will have trial sites for the pivotal study. I also identified and assessed potential pivotal trial sites in the US. These tasks were particularly rewarding since they will directly inform the planning of the phase 3 pivotal trial.
The main project I have worked on during my internship has been producing a report quantifying the placebo effect within randomised controlled weight-loss trials. I worked alongside Ella, Hutan and George to investigate the average change in different outcome variables, such as weight (kg), when a participant is randomised to a placebo intervention group rather than the treatment intervention group under investigation. To achieve this, I created a large data set for analysis by extracting the placebo group relevant data from 15 recent papers focused on different pharmaceutical weight loss interventions. Hutan completed the meta-analysis for most of the data sets and for the data sets he couldn’t analyse due to a lack of variation being reported, I learned how to analyse this data with weighted mean analysis. After analysing all the data I had extracted, I was given the opportunity to present the results to the OMP team as well as other projects I had been involved in during my internship. I really enjoyed transforming the data from the report into a presentable form for everyone to understand as well as answering questions and listening to the thoughts of others about the results. Even though a minority of the results were not consistent with previous literature, I was able to justify why my data gave these results and how future research could improve on the methods used in this report. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project as it has leaned into my interests as a student; I found researching and reading different papers on the psychological and physiological consequences of the placebo effect very interesting. I would like to say a big thank you to Ella, Hutan, and George for helping me complete this project as I have learned a lot!
Manufacturing and Operations:
I was given the opportunity to get involved in manufacturing and learn about the intricacies of how Sirona is made and functions to suppress appetite. I enjoyed asking the team lots of questions! Camilla and Richard taught me about the history of OMP and how the company has grown over time. We looked through historic pitch decks and how the positioning of Sirona has changed as the weight-loss market has evolved. I particularly enjoyed learning about the predicted growth for OMP in the next couple of years and how fundraising and investment relates to this. Lastly, Adele taught me about quality management systems and Fiona discussed future directions of Sirona with its applications to drug delivery.
“I have found the company culture very welcoming, supportive, and friendly, and would definitely recommend OMP as a company to intern at if you are interested in biotech or life sciences start-ups.”
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at OMP and am very grateful for the internship opportunity. I have found the company culture very welcoming, supportive, and friendly, and would definitely recommend OMP as a company to intern at if you are interested in biotech or life sciences start-ups. The experience has helped me narrow down my thoughts about a future career path and I have found being involved in clinical trials within a biotech extremely rewarding. I will shortly be returning to Durham in early September to begin netball pre-season and start my final year. I am looking forward to applying my new knowledge and relevant skills, especially as one of my modules covers obesity!