Final days at Aastrom

Posted by Amanda at Monday, August 29, 2011

So I finished my rotation at Aastrom Biosciences and I was sad to leave. I learned a lot while I was there. You don't realize how much communications goes on between drug development companies and the FDA.

I was able to sit in on a meeting with an investor where they spoke to the leaders of Aastrom and they asked questions about the product to determine if it would be a good investment.

My last week at Aastrom, I did a lunch-and-learn presentation on heart transplants. This was relevant to Aastrom because the biologic they are producing is geared towards the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy. And if dilated cardiomyopathy is not treated, it can lead to a heart transplant. I learned a lot about heart transplants for my presentation. It has also helped me realize the importance of certain medications because in the end they can save patients millions of dollars in future treatments.

I learned from my time at Aastrom that there is a lot of paper work involved with drug development, from the information they submit to the FDA to the information that is collected from the trial sites.

This rotation has definitely sparked my interest in drug development. It helped me realize how important drug development companies are and that they are not as evil as others sometimes make them out to be.