2026 U.S Summer Internship Program: Oral Drug Product Development (ODPD)

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Job Description

The ODPD group is responsible for design & development formulation and manufacturing processes of oral solid dosage forms (OSDs) support early and late phase clinical studies using various synthetic molecule pipeline assets.

The intern will have the opportunity to work on development of material sparing tableting process development. 

Compaction simulators are widely used in tablet development due to their low material use and flexibility. Yet, they often fail to replicate the flow and shear forces present in production presses, resulting in tablets whose quality diverges from those made on production equipment.

This project aims to develop a method to properly condition powder blends before compression in a compaction simulator. We will conduct experiments involving extended shearing and develop stress‐scaling relations. The method will be validated using a pilot‐ or production‐scale press.
 

The data sets generated during this project will be collated in a database, along with prior internal results to support machine learning based predictions for selection of initial process parameters for unknown blends.

How You Will Contribute:
Duties may include the following, under the manager's supervision

• Run various experiments on the compaction simulator to manufacture tablets and characterize material properties like yield pressure, strain rate sensitivity etc.

• Manufacture tableting mixtures using various mixing and granulation techniques.

• Run characterization experiments including bulk and true density, shear cell, hardness, disintegration, dissolution, particle size distribution etc. 

• Use process modeling techniques like discrete element method (DEM) to understand the die filling process and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and compression cycle.

Internship Development Opportunities:

• The intern will collaborate closely with multiple experts within the ODPD group and other cross functional team members within R&D to and understand how the groups collaborate to enable support of pipeline programs

•  Gain laboratory experience across various unit operations involved in OSD manufacturing like mixing, granulation, tableting etc. 

• The intern will get exposed to material sparing characterization and development approaches, which include use of compaction simulator and process modeling like DEM, FEA
   

Job Requirements:

• ​This position will be Fully Onsite and require 4+ days in the Cambridge office per week.  

• Must be pursuing a Master’s or Doctoral Degree in a relevant Field of Study

• A foundational knowledge of pharmaceutical product development. Knowledge of pharmaceutics/ chemical or mechanical engineering/ bulk solids/ materials characterization and modeling is preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as a collaborative team member.

• Comfortable working in a laboratory environment 

• Willingness to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriate for powder laden environments, such as safety glasses, gloves, masks closed toe shoes, etc.

Internship Eligibility  

• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. on a permanent basis without requiring sponsorship  

• Must be currently enrolled in a degree program graduating December 2026 or later  

• The internship program is 10-12 weeks depending on the two start dates (May 26th-August 14th or June 15th- August 21st)   

• The intern must be able to commit to one of these time frames