Five Careers for Pharmacists in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry presents pharmacists with career opportunities that provide better flexibility and work-life balance, all with greater earning potential. If you are a new grad looking for career options or a pharmacist looking to make a change, here are five areas where you can leverage your clinical knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry:

  1. Medical Affairs: This functional area within the industry is involved in the dissemination of scientific information to the medical community to some capacity. Depending on the role within medical affairs, this can be done through face-to-face interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs) or telephone calls, emails, and/or letters. The roles within this functional area range from medical information specialists (MISs) who are usually located in an in-house call center to address requests from HCPs and consumers, to medical science liaisons (MSLs) who are field-based professionals that set up regular meetings with HCPs in their given territory. There are also professionals who work in pharmacovigilance to gather safety data for the product. If you’re looking to specialize further in Medical Affairs, you may consider becoming a Board Certified Medical Affairs Specialist (BCMAS). This accredited program is designed to help medical affairs professionals solidify their credibility and fast-track their careers. It offers comprehensive training that covers everything from clinical trials and pharmacovigilance to biostatistics and health economics, and is completed entirely online at your own pace.
  1. Regulatory Affairs: This functional area focuses on ensuring that drugs and pharmaceutical products comply with all relevant regulations and guidelines set by government agencies. These specialists prepare and submit regulatory documents, communicate with regulatory authorities, and stay up-to-date with changing regulations to facilitate drug approvals and compliance. Submissions can include applications for clinical trials, marketing authorization, and post-approval variations to the FDA. These individuals can also play a role in assuring that product labeling and packaging contain accurate and necessary information for safe and effective product use.
  2. Clinical Development: This functional area encompasses professionals who work anywhere along the process of bringing a new drug to market – starting from drug discovery, through pre-clinical research, and ending with clinical trials. Those with a background in pharmacology and who enjoy working in the laboratory setting, may want to get involved in drug discovery where they are actively involved in finding a molecule to treat a certain disease state. On the other hand, professionals in this department can design and carry out clinical trials that would best position a newly discovered drug as safe, effective, and better than current therapy.
  3. Marketing: Because pharmacists are equipped with broad knowledge of how the healthcare landscape functions, they can leverage this understanding to help pharmaceutical companies market their product to consumers, prescribers, and payers. Pharmaceutical companies market products through many channels and professionals in marketing can make sure that the techniques used are targeted, accurate, and informational.
  4. Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR): This functional area is utilized by pharmaceutical companies to generate evidence on the value a new product brings to the therapeutic area to help guide reimbursement and healthcare payers. These professionals employ strategies to gather real-world evidence so that the pharmaceutical company can measure how well the drug is performing after bringing it to market which can help companies communicate value to physicians, patients, and payers. The data gathered will also close the gap between clinical trial performance and real-world health outcomes for a product and can be used to find effective interventions for specific patients.

With the pharmaceutical industry being so dynamic, these are a just a few opportunities where pharmacists can thrive in the industry. No matter where in the pharmaceutical industry you may end up, you are sure to be doing fulfilling work that brings life-changing products into the hands of those who need it most.