Q&A with Kary Yau: Market Access Summer Associate at Bayer, Biomedical Discovery & Commercialization at McMaster University & more

Hello! My name is Kary Yau (she/her) and I just finished my third year in the Biomedical Discovery and Commercialization (BDC) program at McMaster University. The undergraduate BDC program is a third-year entry program and provides the option to pursue a one-year Master of Biomedical Discovery Commercialization. Initially, I started my undergrad in Life Sciences and later specialized in Biochemistry for my first two years. However, towards the end of my second year, although I was strongly passionate about science, I also wanted to pursue learning more about my other interests including innovation and entrepreneurship. I found out about the BDC program and enjoyed the aspect of how it offered a curriculum of science and business in the pharmaceutical industry. 

In the past year, the BDC program has exposed me to the industry by having researchers come in to talk about their current research, as well as getting the opportunity to listen and chat with industry partners and their journeys. After completing my undergraduate degree, I’m looking to pursue my Master of BDC or an MBA. In the future, I’m looking to stay in the pharmaceutical industry and hopefully get the opportunity to work in the States or Europe and travel around!

Outside of school, I enjoy spending my time with my friends and family while exploring new places to eat and explore. I also have a dachshund (sausage) dog that I like to take on walks during my day to get some fresh air. Although I enjoy going out, I also equally like staying in, where you can catch me binge-watching true crime documentaries and reading cheesy romances.

Each year, Bayer hires a group of summer associates for a paid, 4-month internship in a variety of different educational backgrounds in Arts, Business, Creative, or STEM degree in their Mississauga location. I have the lucky opportunity of working as a Market Access Summer Associate this summer (May-August). I first heard of Market Access in one of my BDC courses where our class had the opportunity to have an industry partner come in and talk about their job. 

With a promising product that has completed its rounds of clinical trials, we often think that it is a simple process to bring it into the market and have it listed as a product in hospitals. However, there is a lot of behind the scenes that takes place including regulatory review, approval and reimbursement before this can happen which can take place over the span of a few years. As part of the Market Access team, our job involves going through this whole process and communicating with different payers and departments to negotiate the indications and price of the product. We work with different systems such as Health Canada, Patented Medicines Prices Review Board, CADTH/INESSS and many more for our submissions. As a Summer Associate, learning about the Market Access Environment and the different stakeholder relations has been an exciting opportunity for me to gain a stronger context of the pharmaceutical field. One of my favourite things about being a part of Market Access is the blend of science and business in the work that I do. It is crucial to understand a product's indications and clinical trials to be able to advocate and market its submission to the customers.

Bayer offers an incredible culture of “Be you. Be Bayer”. As an undergraduate student who is still learning the ropes of the industry, everyone I have met at Bayer has been so welcoming and is always looking to help one another out. It has been such an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to see what else I can accomplish on the team during my time there!

I began looking for a variety of different summer internships towards the end of my fall semester and came across this opportunity as a job posting on LinkedIn around early March. Their application process included a resume, cover letter and transcript, followed by 2 rounds of interviews with the Market Access team. Overall, my timeline from applying to receiving a final offer took around 3 weeks.

N/A I’m still working here 😊

I am always open to chatting and connecting through LinkedIn about my current experience at Bayer or any of my past experiences! 

Specific to applying for Bayer Summer Associate positions, they often post their summer job postings around March where they are open for around 1 to 2 weeks. Talent Acquisition Partners from Bayer also commonly repost job postings so following/connecting Bayer’s team may be a great way to stay in the loop! I recommend following Matthew Fear on LinkedIn if you are interested or are looking to chat with someone about Bayer and the community.

Kary’s Linkedln: linkedin.com/in/karyyau 

Bayer Canada Careers: bayer.com/en/ca/career

Don’t limit yourself to your current path and take the time to explore your passion and what you can see yourself doing in the future! In my first year of undergraduate, I had a “go go go “ mentality towards all my courses and my main goal was more focused on the completion of an activity rather than the experience. It was only towards the end of my second year that I really began to take a step back and asked myself if I enjoyed what I was learning and if it was truthfully something that I could see myself doing as a career. After doing my own research about the science field, I discovered new opportunities that I was potentially interested in which resulted in me switching into the BDC program.