Pharmaceutical medicine

NB - Nycomed is now part of Takeda

What influenced you/made you decide to choose your specialty?

'I had been interested in pursuing a career outside hospital medicine or general practice ever since I was a medical student. I explored all sorts of things - Occupational Medicine, Public Health Medicine, Informatics, Armed Forces, Aviation Medicine, Pharmaceutical Medicine as well as careers outside medicine.

'The aspects that attracted me to Pharmaceutical Medicine were the variety of career choices available within Pharmaceutical Medicine, the possibility of travel and posts in far flung places, the commercial aspects that I was interested in learning more about, the possibilities for innovation, and finally that a post came up near where I lived.

'I applied for it, got the job and haven't looked back!'

What rotations did you do in your training? What did you find helpful?

'I had done A&E, Obs & Gynae, Psychiatry, Paediatrics as well as a year in General Practice. I had also done some Rheumatology and Dermatology in my house jobs.

'Aspects from all of these come in handy within Pharmaceutical Medicine as you generally move through quite a few therapy areas within your career so it's very useful to have a basic grounding in a wide range of specialties.'

What are the best aspects of working in your specialty?

'Autonomy, being able to generally mould your job to what you want it to be, to be able to shape a team, with team-working across many different departments - clinical development, marketing, sales, market access, safety, business development, business intelligence; having your ideas heard, breadth of experience gained across all sorts of different fields, opportunities for travel, wide choice of careers within the industry.'

Day in the life of...

'I tend to start work between 8-9am if I am working in the office and leave between 5 and 6pm.

'A day will typically consist of checking e-mails, having meetings with other members of medical e.g. safety, quality, medical information, regulatory, clinical or with other colleagues e.g. marketing, market access, sales, managing director. We approve marketing material and this normally takes around an hour a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.

'I am typically out of the office 1-2 days a week on a variety of different activities, for example meeting with agencies regarding material, meeting with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), attending and presenting data at an advisory board, attending an investigator site for a clinical trial, training the sales teams, or attending a conference.

'I also work a day a week from home. Once a month on average there will be international company meetings which will typically take 2-3 days, normally in a European city although can be further afield.'

What influenced you/made you decide to choose pharmaceutical medicine?

'I have had an interest in pharmacology and physiology since I was a medical student. During medical school I worked part‐time in a clinical research unit as a laboratory assistant. Since then I remained interested in this area of medicine.

'Early phase clinical research combines clinical medicine, research and pharmacology with the use of new techniques and equipment.'

What rotations did you do in your training (if appropriate)? What did you find helpful?

'South Thames West Anaesthetic Training Scheme, St. George's School of Anaesthesia, London and the Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialist Training by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

'The latter was done mostly at work at Richmond Pharmacology. As Pharmaceutical Medicine is a very varied specialty, usually the workplace cannot provide training in all areas, therefore some of the training was done via accredited external training courses.'

In what ways is your job satisfying?

'The job is very interesting as there are always new challenges. No clinical trial is the same as another and it is satisfying to design, conduct and report a study that reaches its objectives and is well done.

'There is always something new to learn, be it a new mode of action of a medicine, a new research technique or a new efficient study design. The job offers interaction with people coming from different backgrounds such as healthy volunteers, patients, clinical research professionals and experts in other fields.

'The conduct of clinical trials is international and it is good to work with people in different countries where regulations and procedures are often different. It is also satisfying to publish the work we have done.'

What are your typical working hours? Are they sociable/family‐friendly hours?

'The clinical research unit operates like a hospital and is open 24/7. My working hours depend on the research projects ongoing at the time and other commitments such as conferences, publications etc.

'A usual working day is approximately ten hours and I participate in a weekend rota with my colleagues. Night work is usually not required.'

How much annual leave do you get?

'Six weeks, not all of it is actually taken.'

Are there opportunities for travel?

'Yes, there are opportunities to attend and present at conferences and to attend meetings.'

Are there opportunities for teaching or lecturing?

'Yes, there are plenty of opportunities for teaching and lecturing within our research unit, via the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and at conferences and meetings.'

Are there opportunities for research?

'Research is what I do mostly.'