Pharmacy - Prescription for a rewarding Career

Careers in Pharmacy 

In India, the pharmacist’s career is still synonymous with dispensing medicines.

A peek at pharmacy career abroad reveals all of the mentioned below….

Well-rounded: Exciting blend of health care, direct patient contact, business, and technology

You  can choose a two -fold career path 

People Driven   Vs Industry driven

People Driven : Community Pharmacy/Hospital/Managed Care(review therapy) /Consulting/Drug Stores. Majority of pharmacists work in community pharmacy, but growing number of pharmacists working in other health care settings, such as…

 Industry Driven:

Pharmaceutical Companies: Pfizer, Merck --- research, Sales ,QA, Marketing.

(for Marketing/Sales look at special courses as in MBA in Marketing Mgmt offered at USP)

Govt labs: FDA ,NIH

Biotech Industry: Mol Bio techniques

Academics: Teaching & research

Medical publishing/Technical Writing:

Special career tracks like hospital management/administration –You  can Requisites : work experience of 2+ yrs , GMAT and TOEFL, MBA in Health Care Administration/ or University of Wisconsin - Madison
M.S. Program (with concentration in Hospital-Pharmacy Administration)

Choosing your specializations 

Choose your subjects wisely:

While taking up a degree program you want to decide on an intelligent mix of courses so that you are able to fit the job market and also match your interests

Apart from interests(align your project work here) consult seniors, faculty,

Study job market – for the past one year the trends are medicinal chemistry /pharmacology ( also applicable to RGUHS)

These are the some of the specializations available at the school of pharmacy – for a MS/PHD program

•          Drug Discovery & Design(synthesis of new drugs)

    Fields; Medicinal Chemistry, Combinatorial chemistry, Biotechnology

•          Drug Delivery: dosage of drugs

     Fields: Pharmaceutics, Pharmaco-kinetics

•          Drug Action: how drug works in the body

    Fields :Molecular biology, Pharmacology, Pharmaco-dynamics, Biochemistry ,Toxicology

•          Drug Analysis: Separating,identifying & quantifying components Fields :Analytical Chemistry

•          Cost effectiveness of Medicines - Pharmaco-economcis

•          Regulatory Affairs: Pharmacy Administration

Some top universities and their courses

Marketing for e.g MS in marketing  Univ of sciences , philadelphia

MS in Hospital administartion –Wisconson Madison ,Ohio State univ

Ohio State University and many other schools also offer Hospital Administration/Hospital Management – MBA

What does the shortage of pharmacists mean for pharmacy graduates?…

Growth in pharmacist jobs

More and more people today have started questioning the medicines they consume.

Due to this…

1.Increased life span

2.Sophistication of medicines

3.Increased emphasis in patient care

Salary Outlook

Placement Services at University of Georgia –Athens organizes career fairs each year –recent graduates have been placed in agencies like NIH, FDA,Pfizer

Their graduates have received multiple offers with a salary of $45,000.

Australia –starting salary is 9, 000 –12,000 dollars

UK the starting salary is 16,000 –21,000 pounds

Ideal career progression in terms of salary the range can be anywhere between 45K – 80K  starting from a staff pharmacist to a pharmacy director 

References

www.pharmacynow.org