Gaining valuable internship experience

IMU Pharmaceutical Chemistry alumna Bavani Rajan currently works as a regulatory affairs associate at Johnson & Johnson Sdn Bhd.

During her studies at the IMU, she had the opportunity to acquire an on-the-job training through an industrial attachment. The attachment allowed her as a student to gain valuable industrial experience and build a professional network for her career.

Bavani recalled the time she spent abroad during her internship: “The internship that I have undertaken at Simpor Pharma, a pioneering pharmaceutical and nutraceutical manufacturing plant in Brunei, has proven to be an invaluable experience for me, and is certainly a great steppingstone,” explained Bavani.

“It was a big challenge to step up and take up the initiative to do my internship abroad.”

Bavani’s six-month internship had many challenges but she faced them all as an adventurous experience.

“I learnt not to be afraid of them,” she said.

At Simpor Pharma, she learnt to interact effectively with colleagues on a day-to-day basis and gained knowledge in a variety of tasks. She dealt with formidable situations professionally as an intern in the Quality Control Department.

At the beginning, Bavani said underwent training on current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and halal practices in a pharmaceutical industry.

It was a big challenge to step up and take the initiative to do my internship abroad.

Later, she was tasked to do different testings in chemical and microbiology laboratories, working closely with the Quality Assurance and Production Department.

“Generally, I will conduct the tests using both in-house and compendia methods, troubleshoot and improve the methodology.

“Whereas in microbiology department, the routine tasks were conducting tests on purified water, incoming raw materials, finished products and stability studies,” explained Bavani.

She was trained in the operation and maintenance of instruments such as UV-visible spectrophotometer, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography and gas chromatography instrumentations and the Karl Fisher.

“I really enjoyed working with new and on-demand technologies, which will give me an advantage during my future employment,” she said enthusiastically. By the third month of her internship, Bavani was

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