The Future Talent Program features internships that last up to 12 weeks and will include one or more projects.  These opportunities in our Research & Development Division can provide you with great development and a chance to see if we are the right company for your long-term goals.

Our Company is on a quest for cures and is committed to being the world’s premier, most research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. Today, we’re doubling down on this goal. Our company is a true scientific research facility of tomorrow and will take our company’s leading discovery capabilities and world-class small molecule and biologics R&D expertise to create breakthrough science that radically changes the way we approach serious diseases. 

Our Company’s Quantitative Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics (QP2) group within the Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism department is seeking summer interns. The Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics (QP2) group at our company provides pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis and modeling and simulation support to enable decisions and accelerate programs across the pipeline in Discovery and Preclinical Sciences, Early Development, and Late Stage development, including product value enhancement. The intern will work closely with a QP2 staff mentor to develop and apply quantitative mathematical, physiologic, pharmacologic or statistical models and simulations to support ongoing projects and/or to contribute to the development and implementation of new capabilities, standards, and approaches. 

Specific intern projects will be developed with the mentor consistent with completion in the timeframe of the internship such as:

Support implementation and refinement of the small molecule brain penetration PBPK model that has been developed for rat and human for internal use. This model developed by CAPKR shows sustained investment in the development of translational approaches for the prediction of human dose/exposure for substrates of brain efflux transporters.  To facilitate the use of rhesus data, the PBPK model will be adapted to rhesus. Model refinement and validation will be conducted based on internal historical rhesus data obtained from PET studies. The project will commence with literature mining of physiological parameters for rhesus to provide species specific data to parameterize the rhesus model. The second phase of the project will utilize knowledge learned from the first step to develop and validate the PBPK model using available rhesus Occ50 (PET) and Kd data from internal compounds. Because of the multifaceted nature of the project, it will provide to the intern an opportunity to learn key principles of ADME and PBPK modeling. Findings from this project will advance the knowledge in transporter in vitro-in vivo extrapolation and hence, there could be opportunity to contribute to publications in scientific journals as well scientific conference proceedings.

We are seeking intern candidates at all levels with strong academic performance, communication skills, teamwork, and the ability to work in a multi- functional environment. Students should have strong written and oral communication skills and intern students will have an opportunity to present their research results in both oral and written forms.

This is a full- time internship position.

Required Education and Skills:

• Candidates must be a currently enrolled undergraduate sophomore, junior, or senior student pursuing a bachelor’s degree OR enrolled in a PhD or MS degree program in Pharmacometrics, Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical PK/PD, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Statistics, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science or related areas.
• Candidates must have completed at least (2) years of studies toward bachelor’s degree by June 2023.
• Candidates must be available to work full-time for 12 weeks beginning on 5JUN23

Preferred Experience & Skills:

• Candidates should have strong computational skills.
• Candidates should have an interest or basic skills in programming languages such as NONMEM, MATLAB, Monolix, R, SAS, Phoenix NLME, Python or other related languages
• Candidates should have experience in data visualization approaches and coding (e.g. R)
• Candidates should have familiarity with population modeling principles, differential equations and Bayesian statistics
• Candidates should have experience with MATLAB preferred
• Candidates should have knowledge or interest around machine learning, cheminformatics, pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetics and pharmacokinetic modeling
• Candidates should have a GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Candidates should have experience in pediatric or large molecule drug development
• Candidates should be eligible to work in U.S. on a full-time basis.

We are a research-driven biopharmaceutical company. Our mission is built on the simple premise that if we “follow the science” that great medicines can make a significant impact to our world. We believe that a research-driven enterprise dedicated to world-class science can succeed by inventing medicine and vaccine innovations that make a difference for patients across the globe. 

Who we are …

We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

What we look for …

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.