A team of MBA students from Rutgers Business School recently earned high praise during a case study competition that focused on developments in the biopharmaceutical industry.
The competition was sponsored by Bayer, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi Pasteur and Novartis, among other pharma giants. The Rutgers team won second place, earning a $3,000 prize. Other participants were students from the business schools of Wharton, Yale, MIT and Georgetown. The competition takes place annually and is organized by Rutgers’ Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for the Study of Pharmaceutical Management Issues.
The case competition was held at the school’s campus in Newark, NJ, on November 20th, 2015. Teams are selected by representatives of the sponsor companies. The competitors receive a valuable opportunity to gain exposure to these industry experts, while showcasing their talents in real-world scenarios. Rutgers MBA student and team member Mike Koskulics commented in a press release on the value of the team’s win in the contest. “We have such a large number of high-quality sponsors. If you’re a first- or second-year MBA student, you have the ability to meet representatives from five or more great companies.”
For the first time in the competition’s history, a team from Harvard Business School applied. Koskulics noted the high caliber of the event, stating, “This isn’t the kind of competition you apply to and get in. You have to put together a strong team.”
The first place winners were students from Johns Hopkins University. They earned $6,000.