2025 Biologics Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) Drug Product Development Intern - AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. 

2025 Biologics CMC Drug Product Development Internship Overview

Envision spending your summer working with energetic colleagues and inspirational leaders, all while gaining world-class experience in one of the most dynamic organizations in the pharmaceutical industry. This is a reality for AbbVie Interns.

The Biologics Drug Product Development (Bio DPD) group develops monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, antibody drug conjugates (ADC) and other biologics by state-of-the-art formulation and analytical technologies. We create valuable intellectual property through new formulation compositions and prepare and defend CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control) regulatory content.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are increasingly being used for the delivery of mRNA, enabling an emerging class of therapeutics, Genetic Medicine. However, an outstanding challenge presented by the LNP modality is the efficient and stable long-term storage of LNP-mRNA formulations. As such research is still in its infancy, the parameter space for formulation development remains largely unexplored, particularly for targeted LNPs. Bio DPD is seeking a highly motivated and creative intern to support the investigation of LNP formulation strategies with a primary focus on lyophilization. The study will involve screening lipid nanoparticles of varying constituents, along with screening various formulation conditions, to identify robust formulation conditions for the LNP modality. This study will significantly enhance the understanding of the factors that impact the long-term storage of LNP-mRNA formulations in both frozen and lyophilized formats and help to enable this class of drug products at AbbVie.

Key responsibilities include:

• Perform screening of excipients (buffering agents, sugars, polyols, etc.) to develop robust drug-product formulation.
• Develop and screen lipid mixture that maximizes encapsulation and delivery efficiency while withstanding drug product manufacturing related stresses like freeze-thaw, filtration, lyophilization and long-term storage.   
• Perform lab-scale studies including study design, preparation, execution, data collection, analysis, presentation, and report writing.
• The outcome of the work will greatly enhance the understanding of drug product development of mRNA-LNP drugs.

This internship will be based in North Chicago, IL.

Minimum Qualifications 

• Currently enrolled in university, pursuing PhD in Chemical/Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, or other related field
• Must be enrolled in university for at least one semester following the internship

Preferred Qualifications 

• Expected graduation date between December 2025 – June 2026
• Exposure to common analytical techniques like high pressure liquid chromatography, light scattering based instruments, particle analysis, and zeta potential
• Scientific understanding of genetic medicines and their delivery mechanisms specifically structure & function of lipid nanoparticles, formulation considerations, and lyophilization techniques

Benefits and Amenities

• Competitive pay
• Relocation support for eligible students
• Select wellness benefits and paid holiday / sick time

Equal Employment Opportunity
At AbbVie, we value bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop new and innovative solutions for patients. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law. ​

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

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