Capstone courses are independent research courses that are offered in many majors in undergraduate and graduate school. In the MBA Pharma Marketing program, these courses are usually six-month courses in which students use the knowledge and skills that they have gained from other MBA courses. Students use these skills to develop a project related to pharmaceutical sales, marketing or management. The project requires the students to enter the work environment and report on research they conduct in the particular sector of business.
While specific requirements vary from MBA program to program, there are some general requirements for the capstone courses. A student will be placed in a real-world pharmaceutical-related internship or job. While working on that job, the student will be required to keep a journal and compile a portfolio to illustrate the skills he learns throughout the course.
Upon entering the work environment, the student must develop a project topic in accordance with her interest. In this process, the student will consult a mentor or faculty member for approval. Topics can include studies on service quality, which may provide knowledge of use in and out of the MBA program, or studies on customer loyalty to specific pharmaceutical brands or companies. Once a topic is approved, the student will need to stay in contact with her mentor and provide periodic documentation of the data collected and analyzed and the conclusions to be drawn from it, culminating in a final report.
The execution of the project will depend on the topic the student chooses. The project could include bench research, which is based more on the scientific factors behind pharmaceuticals. This research will require the use of the scientific method. Another project may propose a business plan; the student might operate a program based on his business plan for a new medication in the pharmaceutical community. The project may require an educational component; the student might conduct surveys to learn about methods of education in the pharmaceutical realm.