Career Options in the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Industry

Written by dedicated and active professionals from different areas of the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and medtech sectors, this book provides information on job and career opportunities in various life sciences industries. It also contains useful tips to launch your own startup. The pharmaceutical, biomedical and medical technology sectors offer a wide range of employment opportunities to talented and motivated young graduates. However, many of these employment prospects are not well known to early career scientists, who concentrate primarily on the scientific and academic content of their fields of interest.

The book is divided into five parts: Part 1 provides an academic perspective that focuses on the specific preparation required in the final years of study to embark on a successful career in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. In Part 2, industry experts discuss employment possibilities all along the drug or product life cycle, from discovery research and development to commercialisation. Part 3 follows, highlighting opportunities in support functions such as regulatory affairs or quality assurance. Part 4 focuses on additional opportunities in the wider biomedical sector, while Part 5 contains practical tips and training opportunities for entering the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. In the epilogue, the authors reflect on this fascinating field and its career prospects.

The book offers a multidisciplinary perspective on career opportunities in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industry to a wide range of students and young life scientists.

Table of contents (19 chapters)

Front Matter

Pages i-xxi 

Setting the Scene

Life After Academia: Launching Your Pharma/Biotech Career

Chris van Schravendijk

Pages 3-11 

Competences for Pharmacists 

Jeffrey Atkinson, Chris van Schravendijk

Pages 13-32 

Job and Career Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Overview

Josse R. Thomas

Pages 33-84 

Opportunities Along the Drug/Product Life Cycle

Front Matter

Pages 85-85 

Career Opportunities in Toxicology 

Mark Martens, Miranda Cornet

Pages 87-104 

Job Possibilities in Clinical Research 

Benedikt Van Nieuwenhove

Pages 105-117 

How to Get and Develop a Career in a Market Access Role in the Medical Devices’ Industry

Vito Palatino

Pages 119-136 

Job Opportunities in Pharmaceutical Marketing 

Vicky van den Nieuwenhuyzen

Pages 137-146 

Working in Medical Affairs and Clinical Operations: Life-Changing Careers

Drago Vuina, Amal Chalfoun, Ana Ines Chiesa, Laura Salvi, Giusi Lastoria, Arianna Gattoni

Pages 147-159 

The Role of Medical Science Liaison

Roberta Manfroni

Pages 161-170 

Career Development for Physicians in the Biopharmaceutical Industry

Anke Van den broeck, Ann Dhoore

Pages 171-186 

Opportunities in Supportive Functions

Front Matter

Pages 187-187 

Job and Career Opportunities in Regulatory Affairs/Science

Ann Emmerechts, Josse R. Thomas

Pages 189-199 

Job Opportunities in Clinical Research Quality Assurance

Iris Gorter de Vries

Pages 201-209 

Job Opportunities in Quality Assurance Related to Manufacturing of Medicinal Products

Maaike Gons

Pages 211-231 

Other Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sector

Front Matter

Pages 233-233 

Careers’ Perspective in a Science and Technological Park

Laura Aldrovandi, Simona Sbardelatti

Pages 235-247 

To Be or Not to Be: Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation as a Way to Innovate in Life Sciences

Brian Cahill, Fabrizio Conicella, Eoin Galligan, Miklós Györffi

Pages 249-262 

Other Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sector

    How to Become a Successful Hospital and Community Pharmacist

        Lilian M. Azzopardi 

    Pages 263-287

Practical Tips and Tricks

    Front Matter

    Pages 289-289

    A Successful Career in the Life Sciences Industry: How to Write Your Strongest Resumé and Ace that Interview

        Sofie Paeps, Charlotte Peters 

    Pages 291-298

    Skill Building for Career Advancement: Public Speaking and Networking

        Hynda K. Kleinman 

    Pages 299-310

    Training Opportunities for a Career in the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Industry

        Josse R. Thomas 

    Pages 311-325

Back Matter

Pages 327-328

Josse R. Thomas, PharmaCS, Merchtem, Belgium

Luciano Saso, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Roma, Italy

Chris van Schravendijk, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ternat, Belgium

Josse R. Thomas graduated as a Pharmacist and holds a postgraduate and a PhD degree in Medical Sciences (experimental and clinical pharmacology) from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is certified as a Clinical Pharmacologist and has more than 30 years of experience in clinical drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, he held or holds various academic and consulting positions, including former Visiting Professor at KU Leuven (clinical drug development), former member of the Medical Research Ethics Committee of UZ/KU Leuven, member of the Clinical Trials Board of the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), National Expert participating in the European Commission DG SANTE Union Controls within the framework of the Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR), and Senior Consultant at PharmaCS. He is also co-author of the book ‘Global New Drug Development: An Introduction’, published by Wiley-Blackwell, and a reference in its field.

Prof. Luciano Saso (Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) is author of more than 350 scientific articles published in peer reviewed international journals (H-index Google Scholar 58, Scopus 48). He coordinated several research projects and has been referee for many national and international funding agencies and international scientific journals in the last 30 years.  Prof. Saso has extensive experience in international relations and he has been Deputy -Rector at Sapienza University of Rome in the last 7 years. In the last 20 years, he participated in several projects and has been speaker and chair at many international conferences organised by the UNICA network of the universities from the Capitals of Europe (http://www.unica-network.eu/) and other university associations. Prof. Saso is currently President of UNICA (2015-2023) and Member of the Steering Committee of CIVIS (https://civis.eu/en)  

Prof. Em. Chris van Schravendijk is Emeritus professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. His research domain is focused on cellular biology, prediction and prevention of type-1 diabetes. As faculty professor he was responsible for the introductory course on Scientific Thought and Evidence Based Medicine in the first Medical Bachelor year and for the Bachelor course on Formulation and Development of a Scientific Hypothesis in the third Bachelor year of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Between 2008 and 2016, he was the Director of the Doctoral School of Life Sciences and Medicine, with more than 200 PhD students. He has a long standing interest in international benchmarking and harmonization in the area of Higher Education (MEDINE, MEDINE-2, ORPHEUS, UNICA) with focus on the place of the research component in the undergraduate medical curriculum as well as on career perspectives of academic graduates. As emeritus he is particularly interested in PhD workshops promoting better awareness of research integrity as well as the promotion of job opportunities in the pharma-biomed-medtech sector.