Career Scope for Pharmacy Professionals

The pharmaceutical industry has abundant opportunities for growth and career development. The pharmaceutical sector has grown at a tremendous pace over the past few years. As new innovations and discoveries are continuously being made, the scope of pharmaceutical careers keeps increasing. The options and opportunities are endless in pharmaceutical companies and there are numerous jobs available. 

The following pharmaceutical fields offer a wealth of job and career opportunities for talented and interested young graduates: 

1) Research & Development (R&D)

Pharmaceuticals are considered as the one of the most highly regulated industries worldwide. The pharmacy industry is one such industry that thrives on research and development. For this option, masters and Ph.Ds degree holders are highly in demand for research of new drugs, process development, formulation, development, clinical trials and toxicological studies.

2) Regulatory Bodies

The regulatory agencies ensure compliances in various legal and regulatory aspects of a drug. Every country has its own regulatory authority, which is responsible to enforce the rules and regulations and issue guidelines for development, licensing, registration, manufacturing, marketing and labeling of pharmaceutical products, blood products, food and cosmetics.

Drug Inspector is a highly reputed and responsible profession in the field of pharmaceutical industry that monitors the safety, quality and efficacy of medicinal products from the manufacturing stage to the marketing stage. Drug Inspectors are responsible for inspecting, auditing, monitoring and checking the quality of drugs to make sure that they are safe for patients and do not have any adverse effects on the human body.

There are various posts available based on the qualification and experience.

·         Drug Inspector

·         Asst. Drug Controller

·         Deputy Drug Controller

·         Drug Controller of state

·         D.C.I. (Drug Controller of India)

3) Medical Writer

Medical writing is writing regulatory drug submission and scientific documents for drugs, devices and food for drug regulatory authority/food and drug administration submission and approval. Medical writing involves wide rage of documents preparation. Medical Writers work in the pharma industries as full time employees, as freelancers and also work with physician and doctors either as part time or full-time. 

Also Read: What is Medical Writing and its Career Path?

4) Pharmacovigilance Associate/ Drug Safety Associate 

Pharmacovigilance has tremendous career options for life science and pharmacy graduates. A career in Pharmacovigilance is exciting and rewarding with a well defined career path. The growth is fast which eventually leads to managerial, team lead and associate director roles with good pay packages. All you need to do is be skilled in the latest tools and technologies and be trained in popular Pharmacovigilance databases.  

Also Read: Pharmacovigilance and Career Path in The Pharmaceutical Industry

5) Drug Regulatory Affairs Officer/ Manager

Regulatory Affairs (RA) department is responsible for preparation and submission of registration documents to regulatory agencies and perform all subsequent discussion to obtain and preserve marketing authorization (MA) for the products concerned. DRA department acts as the mediator in between Regulatory authority & Manufacturer of Pharmaceutical products. DRA mainly works on eCTD, CTD and ACTD. A new class of professionals emerged to handle these regulatory matters for pharmaceutical organization.

Also Read: Drug Regulatory Affairs and Career Options

6) Pharmaceutical Production and Manufacturing

Pharma manufacturing refers to the industrial-scale synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs to be used for humans or animals. In various pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations, Pharmacy graduates and post- graduates are keeping up with the production plant of the organization. Pharmaceutical companies also require experienced pharmacy graduates in the roles of drugs and medical device production. Furthermore, due to the high demand, medication supply must be done on a rigid time and the production manager has to ensure the product quality at the same time. This role not only requires knowledge of drugs and composition but also state and national and international drug formulary, good manufacturing practices rules and regulations regarding the same.    

The options of working in pharmaceutical production and manufacturing are huge. Professionals for production and manufacturing are not only required by pharmaceutical, biotechnological products, surgical dressings, medical devices, equipment, ayurvedic/ homeopathic / unani medicines, veterinary medicine, etc but also the requirement for the production of cosmetics, dental products, soaps, and toiletries.   

7) Analysis and Testing

Analysis and testing go hand in hand with manufacturing industry specially in order to maintain a proper Quality control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA). Highly skilled professionals are required by all the companies to handle sensitive analytical dealings and sophisticated equipment such as electrochromatography, chromatography, and spectroscopy. Their responsibility also includes developing innovative analytical methods, analyzing and interpreting data etc. 

8) Quality Assurance and Quality Control Manager

 

Quality Assurance and Quality Control Manager job responsibility is to ensure the quality of drug products and medical devices. In addition, they have to keep a check on every update in the industries standards in order to maintain the quality of medicines according to the latest guidelines. They can function as a quality control officer, auditor and director in different organizations. They are hired by drug manufacturers and ensure that the drugs are safe to consume. 

9) Sales and Marketing

The Pharmaceuticals sales and marketing is considered to be a highly competitive and technical arena and hence one of the best fields when it comes to perks. The pharmaceuticals organizations incline toward pharmacy diploma holders and graduates for this role, as they have thorough information about the medication action, benefits and risks. 

10) Hospitals Pharmacist

The pharmacists work in the hospitals, healthcare centers, clinics and nursing homes are the best informed individuals for prescribing a drug. They dispense medications and counsel to patients and their caregiver, keeping track of patient’s medical history and look after the medications storage and hospital supplies. Hospital Pharmacists are in charge of administering and acquiring medicinal products. Sometimes Hospital Pharmacists also involved in the ward rounds and are in direct communication with the treating physician. 

Some of the positions in the profession:

·         Pharmacy Assistant 

·         Senior Clinical Pharmacists

·         Medicines Safety Manager

·         Medicines Management Technician

11) Community Pharmacist

A Community Pharmacist is the neighborhood Pharmacist. They have their own clinic or pharmacy. They will work directly with the patients, their parents and general public. They are mainly involved in the patient counselling. They sell medicines as per doctor’s prescriptions and also sell over-the-counter medicines without prescriptions. Community pharmacists do not necessarily give prescriptions but can provide patient counselling and give general recommendations.   

Some of the positions in the profession:

·         Consultant Pharmacists

·         Clinical Pharmacist

·         Dispensary Manager

·         Dispensary Pharmacist