Sr. Scientist, Preclinical Development – Biologics Product Development Full-time

Sterile Product Development (SPD) Group

The sterile product development (SPD) group is responsible for developing non-oral dosage forms (injections, implants, inhaled, ocular) for biologics, mixed modalities, vaccines and small molecules from preclinical toxicology studies to commercialization. Our development teams ensure robust composition, primary packaging/device, and process selection through deep fundamental understanding and characterization such that the process is scalable without compromising stability, safety, efficacy, and delivery. During development, we leverage smart experimental design, cutting edge analytical tools, and predictive approaches to inform molecule, formulation and process selection. In summary, our team enables the translation of preclinical candidates into non-oral drug products.

Primary Responsibilities

• Designing and developing sterile products for biologics (monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, antibody-drug conjugates) drugs for injectable and ophthalmic routes of administration.
• Support product development of both early and late-stage assets while developing mechanistic understanding of the degradation and process design space.
• Key studies include screening and developing robust drug product composition, developing scalable process and defining primary packaging. Coordinate good practice (GXP) manufacture activities and appropriate compatibility characterization to enable processing of drug product and dosage administration in toxicology and clinical study.
• Build deep fundamental knowledge around the drug product and document experimental findings and conclusions in formulation development reports and regulatory filings.
• Active participation and leadership on formulation development teams and interfacing and collaborating with key stakeholders to drive project milestones
• Take initiative, motivated to excel, have a strong technical background, have excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Education Requirements

• Master's, with four years or Ph.D. Degree in Chemical/Biochemical/Biomedical Engineering, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry or related field

Experience and Skills

Required :

• Experience and/or knowledge in one or more of the following:
• Protein Stability
• Protein-Protein/Protein-Excipient Interaction
• Biologic molecule design
• Formulation screening
• Characterization
• Process development or process modeling
• Stability predictive modeling
• Basic understanding of sterile product development
• Preferred
• Course work in biochemistry, protein design, pharmaceutics, physiology, pharmacokinetics, protein sciences, chemical kinetics, Transport phenomenon, physical pharmacy is highly desirable.
• Biologics formulation design/process development, alternative processing approaches, definition of critical attributes for process scale-up, analytical development and Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control filing for sterile dosage forms including ocular dosage forms, peptide therapeutics, and non-conventional drug delivery technologies (e.g. emulsions, suspensions, injectable depot)

The salary range for this role is $117,000.00 – $184,200.00. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.