Pre-Pharmacy Profession

Industry Pharmacist

• Pharmacists who work in the pharmaceutical industry can be involved in a wide variety of jobs, including sales, research, law, marketing, and general business.
• Industry pharmacists may develop new drugs in a pharmaceutics department, conduct clinical drug trials in a research department, manage drug safety reports in an epidemiology department, respond to medical information requests, or work on quality control in a drug production department.
• You can also find industry pharmacists promoting drugs to consumers in the sales or marketing department, working as drug information specialists, and developing and monitoring drug development regulations in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• They often work alongside pharmacologists, biochemists, biotechnologists, statisticians, toxicologists, chemical engineers, and others.
• Practice Setting: Industry pharmacists work in a variety of settings including laboratories, businesses, and more.
• Educational Requirements: Depending on their selected area of work, industry pharmacists may have additional training, experience, or degrees (e.g., M.B.A or Ph.D.) in addition to earning a PharmD degree.
• Patients: Industry pharmacists typically do not work directly with patients. Instead, they are very much involved in drug development or the business side of pharmacy.
• Traits: You are less interested in working directly with patients and would prefer to be involved in the drug development or business side of the pharmaceutical industry.