Career Options for Physicians and Scientists in Pharmaceutical Industry

Healthful Vitality | 12/09/2020 | By Dr Anand Lakhkar, MD, PhD | Career Options for Physicians and Scientists

Most of the physicians pursue a career in clinical practice either in private practice or in an academic environment. Most of the graduate student’s prefer to have a career in academic research. However, a career in clinical medicine or academic research might not be to everyone liking. This article explores the available career options for physicians and scientists in the pharmaceutical industry.

How drug development takes place?

Before I get into the various career opportunities available to physicians in the pharmaceutical industry, let us first try and understand how drug development takes place. As we all are aware, developing a new drug from scratch and launching it the market is a very time consuming and expensive process. There are various phases involved in drug development. There is the lead compound identification, pre-clinical trial phase and then the Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials. Pre-clinical testing is done in animals and Phase 1 testing is normally done in healthy individuals. Following completion of Phase 3 trials, drug companies submit New Drug Applications to get marketing authorization for their drug. Now the question is that where can physicians employ their skills in this entire drug development process?

There are many departments where pharmaceutical companies like to hire physicians and scientists. I am mainly focusing on clinical research and corporate roles. Let us look at a few of them in detail:

Clinical development: A career options for physicians and scientists

The most challenging part of the drug development process is the clinical trial phase where drugs are tested in humans. This involves phase 1 studies carried out in healthy volunteers and Phase 2/Phase 3 trials which are carried out in patients. This is where physicians can use their expertise to contribute for developing new and novel drug therapies which will help in providing better healthcare for the patients.

Clinical research: A career options for physicians and scientists

Indeed, a lot of drug companies like to hire physicians for doing clinical research. As clinical research physicians, doctors will either be involved in Phase 1 trials where they will be working on gathering pharmacokinetic and bioavailability data for a drug. Physicians may also be involved in the larger phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. Typically phase 2 and phase 3 trials are conducted across multiple hospitals and will involve a number of clinicians who will serve as principal investigators for the trial. The role of the clinical research physician in such a scenario is multi-fold. He or she is involved in developing the study protocol for the trial.

The clinical research physician also has to co-ordinate with external and internal stake holders to ensure the trial is conducted smoothly. They serve as the study leads on behalf of the company and have to ensure that the protocol has been explained correctly to all the principal investigators involved in the trial. It is their responsibility to ensure that all the trial sites have received Ethics Committee approvals and the trial is being conducted at all the sites as per the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines.

Drug companies generally outsource the conduct of clinical trials to contract research organizations (CROs). CROs have their own team of clinical research associates and clinical trial coordinators at all the trial sites whose job is to ensure the smooth conduct of the clinical trial. The job of the clinical research physician from a drug company is to oversee the conduct of the trial through regular interactions with the CRO personnel.

How they make a difference?

Medicine is an evolving field. There are many diseases for which drug treatments are still not available. Taking a drug from pre-clinical stage to marketing authorization is a very challenging task. This is where physicians with their expertise in clinical medicine are of vital importance. They are involved in the design, planning and execution of the clinical trials for the investigational drugs and ensuring that patient welfare and benefit remains the focus during the entire drug development process.

Skills Required:

• Good understanding of the drug development process
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to multi task
• Should be well versed with Good Clinical Practice guidelines 

Medical Affairs: Another career options for physicians and scientists

Medical Affairs is the arm of a drug company, which is responsible for driving the medical and scientific activities. Indeed, medical affairs department is different from the clinical research department in most of the companies. Moreover, medical affairs are mainly responsible for providing medical and scientific support to drugs, which have already been marketed or are close to getting market approval. Along with this, medical affairs department is also responsible for exchanging updated information about the company’s medications with the clinicians. In many ways they are the scientific face of the company for the clinicians. Previously the medical representatives were the face of a drug company for the clinicians. 

However the feeling among clinicians has always been that medical representatives always have some commercial motive behind promoting drugs. Also in today’s scenario drugs have become more complex with the introduction of personalized medicine, gene therapy and biological drugs. Explaining the benefits ad rational use of such complicated drugs requires people with an in-depth knowledge of science and medicine. This is where physicians and scientists come into the picture. Typically medical affairs teams of drug companies have people with an advanced degree (i.e. MD, PharmD, PhD). Medical Advisor, Medical Science Liaison, Manager Medical Affairs are some of the common designations at which physicians are hired in the medical affairs department.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Although the roles and responsibilities vary from company, the gist of the responsibilities is as follows:

1. Each member of the medical affairs team is assigned a particular therapeutic area

One of the key responsibilities is to stay updated with the different scientific and regulatory updates of the product portfolio and the therapeutic area in general. For e.g. if a medical advisor has been assigned the respiratory therapeutic area, along with the products present in the company’s basket a medical advisor is also expected to stay updated with the recent trends and emerging therapies in respiratory diseases like asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) etc.

2. Imparting scientific training on the product and therapeutic area

Imparting scientific training on the product and the relevant therapeutic area to the sales and marketing teams.

3. Interaction with the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)

They are typically the leading physicians in a particular therapeutic area and have extensive clinical and research experience. Their opinion is highly valued in the medical community and hence drug companies always ensure that the KOLs are well briefed on the benefits and rationale of any product being launched. It is the job of the medical affairs team to ensure that they interact regularly with the KOLs through different platforms to ensure that they are updated on any drug being launched by the company.

One of the ways to do is by organizing medical advisory board meetings. These meetings are typically done before the launch of a new drug by the medical affairs teams. The objective of this kind of a meeting is to gather all the major KOLs on one platform and share the most updated information and clinical trial data on the new drug which is about to be launched so that they are well briefed on the advantages, adverse effects and most effective way to utilize the new medicine to ensure maximum benefit to the patient.

4. Promotional material development with scientific accuracy

Any new promotional material developed by the marketing team has to be reviewed by the medical affairs team for its scientific accuracy.

5. Medical/scientific queries- A career options for physicians and scientists

Even after drugs have been launched, there are many medical/scientific queries, which clinicians might have on a certain drug particularly if it is a new research molecule. In such a scenario, they approach the originator company with any medical queries/issues that they face. It is the job of the medical affairs team to ensure that an appropriate scientific response backed up by authentic references is prepared in response to any medical/scientific queries raised by the clinicians.

6. Presentations to clinicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals

Medical affairs personnel are also expected to give presentations to clinicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to share any new scientific updates or data on the products they are handling.

How they make a difference?

Drugs are becoming more and more complex and with the plethora of scientific literature being published every day, it is becoming difficult for clinicians to keep abreast with the latest literature while balancing their clinical duties. This is where the role of medical affairs professionals becomes so important. Medical affairs professionals meet with the key physicians also known as key opinion leaders to discuss the latest studies and updates in their therapeutic area and ways to impart them in their clinical practice. Along with this, medical affairs professionals also contribute to post marketing clinical data generation by working with clinicians on investigator initiated trials and post marketing surveillance studies. Post marketing data is very important because it is real world evidence which helps to establish the safety and efficacy of a drug in a larger diverse population.

Key Skills Required:

• Strong scientific background and knowledge
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Must be a team-player who can work together with colleagues from the commercial teams
• Ability to travel. Typically, medical affairs jobs involve heavy travelling

How to break in?

Typically many people start as medical science liaisons or regional medical advisors. Generally it is better to apply for a medical affairs job in a therapeutic area where you have clinical or research expertise. A good publication record helps to build credibility with the KOLs.

Useful resources:

• Medical Affairs Society (https://www.medicalaffairs.org/)
• Medical Science Liaison Society (https://www.themsls.org/)
• https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/msl-talk-tom-caravela-70Svb32Z9pG/

Salaries:

Medical affairs jobs generally pay pretty well. The average salary for a medical science liaison in the US is $125,827 (https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Medical_Science_Liaison/Salary)

Medical Writer: A Career Options for Physicians and Scientists

Indeed, medical writing is also fast emerging as a good alternative for physicians who have a flair for writing. Notably, medical writers are involved in developing different types of documents listed below:

1) Developing promotional content for marketing of existing products

This forms the bulk of the work for medical writers in drug companies. Typically, they have to develop scientifically accurate content in the form of LBLs, write-ups or other format which is then used by the marketing teams for promoting the products. Indeed, medical writers may also be involved in developing content for the visual aids which are used by medical representatives while promoting the company’s products to the clinicians.

2) Medical Education

Medical writers may also be involved in developing power point slides and medical content for CMEs or online training modules

3) Publications and Presentations

Drug companies generally present data on their research molecules which are in the development phase at medical conferences. Medical writers are involved in writing abstracts, making scientific presentations and may also be involved in writing and publishing manuscripts

4) Regulatory and Clinical Research Documents

Drug development is a very long and complicated process. During the drug development process, a company is required to submit a number of documents like investigational new drug application, new drug application etc. to the regulatory agencies. Medical writers are involved in drafting these documents. Along with regulatory documents, medical writers are involved in drafting clinical research protocols, consent forms etc. which are an integral part of clinical drug development.

Pharmaceutical companies or medical communication agencies are the organizations which employ physicians as medical writers.

Skills Required:

• Excellent writing skills
• Attention to Detail
• Ability to work under tight deadlines
• Having a track record of publishing scientific articles is helpful

Salary

Average salary for a medical writer based on Indeed is $103,748

Indeed, as discussed above, several career options are available for physicians and scientists in the pharmaceutical industry who do not want to pursue a career in clinical practice or academic research.

Useful Resources:

1. The American Medical Writers Association is a good resource to gain more information on medical writing Link: https://www.amwa.org/.
2. Healthcare Jobs are Among the Top 10-Fastest Growing Occupations in the U.S. Available online at https://healthfulvitality.com/healthcare-jobs-are-among-the-top-10-fastest-growing-occupations-in-the-u-s/
3. Goal Setting Tips for Healthcare Professionals: Available at https://healthfulvitality.com/goal-setting-tips-for-healthcare-professionals-and-healthcare-students/

(Also Read: Nutrition Nursing – More Than an Exciting Career)