New online graduate pharmacometrics program accommodates working professionals

BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Carrie Hoefer became director of online programs at the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in January 2023, her main goal was to get an online version of the pharmacometrics and personalized pharmacotherapy (PPP) graduate program up and running by fall 2024.

With 13 students currently enrolled for the 2024-25 academic year, almost three times the number for the on-campus program, she appears to have achieved her goal.

“We already have a wonderful PPP program on campus that really hits a lot of the boxes for students who recently earned their undergraduate degrees in biology or chemistry or pharmacy,” said Hoefer, PhD, who also serves as associate dean for undergraduate programs and as a clinical assistant professor in the pharmacy school. “I really wanted to create an asynchronous online program for working professionals across the country and even other parts of the world.”

PPP is a rather niche discipline that includes pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD), the study of how drugs move through the body and how the body responds to specific drugs, respectively.

Fewer than half of U.S. pharmacy schools include these two subsets of pharmaceutical science and only one other institution in the country — the University of Maryland — offers an online master’s degree in pharmacometrics and personalized pharmacotherapy, Hoefer pointed out.

Two new online programs in two years

Enrollment in UB’s online master’s program represents a nearly three-fold increase over the campus version of PPP, which began in 2018 under the direction of SUNY Distinguished Professor William Jusko, PhD. Hoefer credits this due to the program’s ability to recruit graduate students from across the country.

“We are seeing the online PPP program attract everyone from recent graduates to working pharmacists and even medical doctors who want to gain expertise in this discipline,” Hoefer said.

Hoefer also created a two-year online graduate program in pharmaceutical sciences that will launch in fall 2025. This master’s program, which immerses students in diverse aspects of drug action — from drug discovery to drug evaluation — also aims to attract more professionals who need the flexibility of an asynchronous online program.

“We are so pleased with the work that Dr. Hoefer has accomplished in just a short time,” said Gary M. Pollack, PhD, dean and professor of the pharmacy school. “She is helping our pharmacy school continue on its upward trajectory with in-demand offerings and increased enrollment. Both the pharmaceutical sciences and the pharmacometrics and personalized pharmacotherapy programs will create a pipeline for current research professionals, as we well as new graduates, to advance career opportunities in drug discovery, evaluation and development.”

Individualized drug treatment

“At UB, we’re very well known for pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics,” Hoefer said.

Pharmacometrics goes a step further with more quantitative modeling for a drug’s journey through the body.

“Pharmacometrics is really tracking everything to do with taking medication — from being absorbed in your body to being distributed, metabolized and excreted,” Hoefer explained. “It exams the link between biology, the physiology of an individual, and pharmacology to design more individualized dosage regimens of not only current prescription medications, but also those currently in clinical trials.”

The growing popularity of genomics and DNA ancestry tests such as 23andMe dovetail with this branch of pharmacy, which is more focused on how drugs affect an individual.

“It makes sense to focus on an individual’s DNA manual and how that manual of the body can have different responses to the drug,” Hoefer said.

The overall model of the drug can continue to be individualized based on multiple co-variables, such as age and ethnicity.

Pharmacometrics, she explained, combines multiple facets of drug design, development and trial information to aid in regulatory decisions and to predict undesired side effects of adverse drug reactions.

New micro-credential, too

Having expertise in the PPP discipline makes graduates more attractive to employers.

“Companies are seeking our students because we are the powerhouse of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and now pharmacometrics, and this new program encompasses all of it,” Hoefer said. “A lot of employers are looking for individuals who have this pharmacometrics background because it’s looking at each stage of the drug development process in a quantitative way.”

The pharmacy school also offers a micro-credential program in pharmacometrics modeling, which provides a snippet of the graduate program over three semesters. A dozen students began this micro-credential in spring 2024 and are currently on their way to becoming the first cohort to earn this new micro-credential. Several students are considering continuing on with the master’s in PPP following their completion of the micro-credential, Hoefer added.

“What we’re seeing with our online programs are people who really want to move up in their jobs or excel in their careers,” she said. “They just need that additional certificate or diploma that says, ‘I’m an expert in this.’”