SURG 5100 — poster set

01 · Type slab11 × 17 in
Fall 2026 · University of Vermont

Why do nine out of ten drugs fail?

One semester walking a molecule from a hit list to a pharmacy shelf — and stopping, every week, at the place programs die.

15weeks, one pipeline stage each
45real companies dissected
30of them did not survive it
~2of 100 programs reach a patient
  • 01Site visits to Vermont pharmaceutical and biotechnology operations.
  • 02Guest speakers from industry: founders and CEOs, quality leads, regulatory scientists who file with the FDA.
  • 03Open to all levels — undergraduates and graduate students, in the same room.
✓ Elective credit, most departments

SURG 5100 · Biopharmaceutical Drug Development
Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · 3 credits · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

Syllabus, schedule
and 45 case studies
02 · Data — the fifteen weeks11 × 17 in
SURG 5100 · Fall 2026

Eleven gates.
Which one kills your molecule?

Every week of this course is one gate. The bar shows where in the pipeline that week lives — and the curve shows how many programs are left by the time you get there.

  • 01Site visits to working plants and labs across Vermont.
  • 02CEOs, founders and FDA-facing regulatory leads in the room, on the record.
  • 03Undergraduates and graduate students — elective credit for most departments (ask your advisor).

Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · 3 credits · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

Full schedule
and case ledger
03 · Ink reverse11 × 17 in
Elective · Open to undergraduates and graduate students

What would you have done differently?

Forty-five real companies. Thirty of them died. You get the data they had, before they made the call.

15weeks, one pipeline stage each
45companies dissected
3site visits to industry
3credits, elective

SURG 5100 · Biopharmaceutical Drug Development
Fall 2026 · Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · CRN 96270
Guest speakers from industry, including founders and CEOs

Scan for the
full syllabus
04 · Two companies11 × 17 in
Bristol Myers Squibb · 2012

$2.5 billion paid.
Nine months later, one patient dead and the program gone.

Pharmasset → Gilead · 2013

Same target. Same year. Same class of molecule. It cured hepatitis C.

What was different?

One team ran a counter-screen the class literature had already told them to run. That is the whole course: the decision that was available, and the one that was taken.

  • →Site visits to Vermont pharma & biotech · CEOs and regulatory leads as guests
  • →Undergraduates and graduate students · elective credit for most departments (ask your advisor)

SURG 5100 · Fall 2026
Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · 3 credits · CRN 96270

05 · Attrition funnel11 × 17 in
SURG 5100 · Biopharmaceutical Drug Development

Of a hundred programs that start, two reach a patient.

This course is about the ninety-eight — where they stopped, what it cost, and which decision would have caught it a year earlier.

✓ Elective credit, most departments

Guest speakers from industry — founders, CEOs, quality and regulatory leads. Optional site visits to Vermont pharma and biotech.

Fall 2026 · Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

Course site
06 · Out of the building11 × 17 in
Fall 2026 · Elective · Undergraduate & graduate

Who decides whether your discovery becomes a medicine?

Not you, mostly. This course takes you to the people who do — and puts them in front of the room.

  • INFounders and CEOs, quality assurance leads, toxicologists, and regulatory scientists who write FDA submissions.
  • OUTSite visits to Vermont pharmaceutical and biotechnology operations — working plants and labs, not slides about them.

SURG 5100 · 3 credits · CRN 96270
Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · Elective credit for most departments (ask your advisor)

Speakers
and site visits
07 · The ledger11 × 17 in
45 companies · 30 of them died

Every red square was somebody's life's work.

We read each one against the stage that decided it — the assay, the dose, the specification, the trial, the submission.

  • 01Site visits to Vermont pharma and biotech.
  • 02Industry guest speakers, founders and CEOs among them.
  • 03Open to undergraduates and graduate students · elective credit for most departments (ask your advisor).

SURG 5100 · Fall 2026 · 3 credits
Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

All 45 cases
08 · Index11 × 17 in
SURG 5100 · Fall 2026 · University of Vermont

What happens to your science after the paper?

Fifteen weeks, fifteen answers. Each one is a department that is hiring, and a place where programs die.

✓ Elective credit, most departments
✓ Undergrad & grad
✓ Site visits
✓ CEOs & founders

Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · 3 credits · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

09 · One object11 × 17 in
Biopharmaceutical Drug Development · SURG 5100

How does a 0.9% measurement become an approved drug?

Come and argue about it. Fall 2026, twice a week, with the people who file these decisions for a living.

  • →Site visits · industry guest speakers including CEOs
  • →Undergraduates and graduate students · elective credit for most departments (ask your advisor)

Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55 · 3 credits · CRN 96270
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

10 · Ticket11 × 17 in
Admit one · Fall 2026
CRN 96270

Can you kill your own program before it kills your company?

Fifteen weeks of learning to say no earlier, cheaper, and with better evidence.

ALL LEVELSundergraduate and graduate, same room
ELECTIVE3 credits toward your degree
OFF-CAMPUSsite visits to industry
IN-ROOMfounders, CEOs, regulatory leads

SURG 5100

Biopharmaceutical Drug Development
Tue & Thu 11:40–12:55
Dev Majumdar, PhD — LCOM & BME · Matt Whelihan, PhD — R&D @ Prolytix Technologies

Scan to enrol