Postdoc Scalability of Personalised Drug Manufacturing

Introduction

Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) is an academic partner in the NANOSPRESSO project, funded by the Dutch Research Agenda and coordinated by Utrecht University. NANOSPRESSO aims to investigate, develop, and implement a technology for decentralized and small-scale production of high quality and affordable nucleic acid nanomedicines for the treatment of rare diseases. This technology enables local production of nucleic acid therapies based on the specific needs of an individual patient. This personalised approach especially improves the quality of care for patients with genetically determined (rare) diseases but particularly also for patients with selected cancers for which cellular therapies are indicated.

For NANOSPRESSO, we are looking for a Postdoc (0.8 FTE - 1.0 FTE) to work in a team of experts on the implementation and scalability of personalised drug manufacturing in contemporary health systems.

Background

In Europe, an orphan disease is defined as a condition that affects no more than 1 person in every 2,000 of the population. There are between 5,000 and 8,000 rare diseases, most of them (72%) have a genetic basis. Unfortunately, there is a lack of effective personalised treatment options for many patients with (ultra-)orphan diseases. The same holds for cancer, with an increasing number of patients receiving personally manufactured therapies like CAR-T or TIL. As cancer and many orphan diseases are genetic in nature, administering gene replacement therapy or gene editing of the defective or missing protein could be an effective cure. Both, mRNA and gene therapy technologies, belong to the advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in the medical field. Several pharmacy departments at university hospitals have now approved laboratory facilities that adhere to good manufacturing practice standards to produce and manufacture personalised therapies. And within this context, NANOSPRESSO particularly aims to develop cartridges to deliver off-the-shelf mRNA based gene replacement therapies. Although these therapies hold the promise to cure fatal diseases, the market is confronted with high development costs, uncertain regulatory pathways and concerns about scalability (i.e. capacity constraints), in particular regarding in-house compounding of personalised drugs. 

Job description

We are recruiting a Postdoc to investigate the scalability of personalised drug manufacturing including gene replacement or gene editing therapies. Issues considered are the production and quality control of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), such as mRNA, which can be in-house at a limited scale for individual patients. However, the production of APIs at scale is challenging because of quality assurance and capacity needs for batch production in the hospital and thus requires external suppliers such as specialised pharmaceutical industry. Also, for production of personalised drugs based on the genetic make-up, a highly specialised team and facilities for comprehensive -omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) analysis should be available. Tertiary hospitals do provide this level of specialised care but are not necessarily the best place for offering all clinical services that require regular and frequent follow-up or management of co-morbidities associated with the primary disease. For offering high quality clinical services, therefore, a second level of complexity comes to play when deciding about the best place where care is delivered and under what institutional arrangements (centre of reference vs. community or teaching hospitals). This Postdoc position is proposed to shed light, from a health systems perspective, on the optimal integration of personalised genetic therapies in contemporary health systems. For the project to be successful, it requires a thorough understanding of the clinical background, the pharmaceutical regulatory framework for ATMPs and detailed knowledge of complex health systems and quantitative approaches to determine optimal care delivery.

Job requirements

We are looking for someone from or with strong affinity to the medical sciences and the business and economic aspects of implementing new genetically determined therapies. For this position, we are looking for a candidate with 

• PhD in economics, health economics, management science, industrial engineering, operations research, public health or related programme.
• Strong quantitative research skills.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English.
• A team player who wants to contribute to the interdisciplinary research agenda of ESHPM.
• Intellectual openness and strong soft skills to effectively work in multidisciplinary teams to tackle important health problems.

As a Postdoc at ESHPM, your primary duty will be to conduct research and generate research output. Teaching and (PhD) student supervision is not expected but can be accommodated if the candidate wishes to be engaged in these activities. Funding acquisition and project management duties are expected insofar related to the NANOSPRESSO project.

Employment conditions and benefits

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is 01-OCT-2024 and you will be based at Campus Woudestein in Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM). This position is for 0.8 fte - 1 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 4.332 to a maximum of € 5.929 gross per month Scale 11 on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is entered into for the duration of 2 years.

Everything else we offer you, you can find below!

-        Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!

-        Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.

-        Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.

-        Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.

-        Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).

-        Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Employer

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service

The Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) is a leading institute based in Rotterdam the Netherlands, specialising in healthcare policy and management across disciplines like economics, law, socio-medical sciences, organisation science, and public administration. ESHPM educates about 1,600 students and employs around 200 faculty members.

Group

see department

Department

The Postdoc position will be embedded within the Health Services Management and Organisation (HSMO) department of ESHPM.

The HSMO department is home to about 40 researchers from various backgrounds and disciplines (operations management, psychology, economics, health sciences). Focus areas include Value-Based Healthcare, Digital Transformation of Healthcare as well as Data-Driven Health Services Research.

In addition to the NANOSPRESSO consortium (with Professor Ray Schiffelers and Professor Marieke de Bruin, both Utrecht University), the Postdoc will also benefit from extensive collaboration with the Health Systems and Insurance department (Professor Marco Varkevisser) and the close proximity of Erasmus Medical Centre including the Centre for Rare Diseases (Chair Professor Edward Nieuwenhuis). 

Additional information

For this postdoc position more information can be obtained from Professor Maarten IJzerman (ijzerman@eshpm.eur.nl) or Dr. Sandra Sülz (sulz@eshpm.eur.nl). The interviews will take place in the last week of August or first weeks of September.

Applying

Please submit your application, consisting of a motivation letter and CV, before the vacancy closing date.

For this postdoc position more information can be obtained from Professor Maarten IJzerman (ijzerman@eshpm.eur.nl) or Dr. Sandra Sülz (sulz@eshpm.eur.nl). The interviews will take place in the last week of August or first weeks of September.

You can find more information about the EUR on our website www.eur.nl. 

We look forward to receiving your application.

Persons of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, ages, neurodiversities, functional impairments, citizenships, or any other aspect are welcome to apply and join the EUR community.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is a highly ranked, international university, based in the dynamic and diverse city of Rotterdam, with its port acting as a gateway to the world.