List of Jobs in Pharmaceutical Industry

Pharmaceutical Industry researches, discovers, develops, manufactures, produces and markets drug and pharmaceutical products aims for internal or external use for or in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of disease or disorder in human beings or animals. Pharmaceutical Companies may deal in generic or branded medications and medical devices.

Below we are discussing jobs based upon their working departments. We divided jobs as under Healthcare related Jobs, Manufacturing and analysis related jobs, sales and marketing jobs, purchase and administration related jobs, jobs in research and development section, and educational and writing jobs etc.

Healthcare related Jobs:

Pharmacist:

Pharmacists are also known as chemists or druggists. Pharmacist are health professionals who specialize in the use of medicines, as they deal with the composition, effects, mechanism of action, dispensing of drugs and proper and effective use of drugs.
Pharmacist is one of the best options to do job in pharmaceutical industry. You can choose either private sector or government sector to do job as a pharmacist. You can also choose to set-up own business as pharmacist by setting up retail pharmacy business or wholesale pharmacy business.
To becoming pharmacist, you need to be either complete minimum of diploma in pharmacy or bachelor in pharmacy or Pharma D, and have to registered yourself under state pharmacy council of concern state.
Different types of pharmacists are as follow:

• Community Pharmacist
• Hospital Pharmacist
• Clinical Pharmacist
• Drug information Pharmacist

Jobs in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Department:

Manufacturing Supervisor:

Manufacturing supervisors in pharmaceutical manufacturing units are the persons who supervise each and every step of manufacturing process from weighing to packaging of finished pharmaceutical products.

Common job responsibilities of manufacturing supervisor are:

• Responsible for manufacturing operations
• Ensure smooth functioning of manufacturing
• Responsible for ensuring fulfillment of monthly production commitment against plan
• Responsible for ensuring manufacturing equipment are running as per requirements
• Tasking on daily output report with monthly, weekly and daily production planning
• Master BMR, BFR, BPR, standard operating procedure, investigation report, protocol and report for topical block
• Responsible for QMS documentation and manufacturing records- preparation and review of BPR & SOP, and Change Controls, CAPA, Deviations Management
• Responsible for investigation of market complaints, deviations, OOS/OOT and other non-conformances from production end

Education qualification requirements:

• Minimum of B.Sc. or B. Pharmacy graduate qualification is required to work as manufacturing supervisor in pharmaceutical sector.

Manufacturing Chemist:

Manufacturing chemist, also known as production chemist is a person who is responsible for all manufacturing operation. He/she is an approved authority for conducting pharmaceutical manufacturing operation in a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit and responsible for same.

Common Job responsibilities of manufacturing chemist is as follow:

• Lead a team for carrying out activity related to manufacturing procedure
• Directing workers and Supervisors regarding manufacturing processes.
• Coordinating with QA and QC team for quality production
• Technical Support on the manufacturing processes, machine operation, record maintenance
• Follow Master Formula Record and maintaining sustain product manufacturing
• To work in GMP environment by following procedure/production operations as per SOPs.
• Comply to the regulatory requirements at each stage of activity
• Maintaining Manufacturing Records and documentation

Qualification Education:

• Minimum of B.Sc. or B. Pharmacy graduate qualification with experience of three year in pharmaceutical manufacturing department for B.Sc. qualification and, One and half year for B. Pharmacy Graduate.

Analytical Chemist:

Analytical Chemist, also known as Quality Control Chemist is a person who is responsible for all procedure related to testing of product and quality control.

Common Job responsibilities:

• Lead a team for carrying out activity related to testing and quality control procedure
• Directing Quality team members regarding testing and quality cntrol processes.
• Coordinating with manufacturing team for timely conducting tests during and after manufacturing process.
• Technical Support on the quality control processes, software operation and data interpretation.
• Follow Master Formula Record and maintaining sustain quality of products.
• To work in GMP environment by following quality control operations as per SOPs.
• Comply to the regulatory requirements at each stage of activity
• Maintaining Analytical records

Qualification Education:

• Minimum of B. Pharmacy graduate or B.Sc. Chemistry with three experience in quality control of pharmaceutical manufacturing unit.

Quality Assurance:

Some pharmaceutical companies have both departments i.e. quality control and quality assurance. Quality assurance section ensures the quality and adoption of quality standards of pharmaceutical products during and after manufacturing process. You can join in pharmaceutical company as a Quality assurance executive and start your career in pharmaceutical industry.
Minimum qualification required for this job is Bachelor in Pharmacy but some companies prefer to recruit post graduate candidates only.

Regulatory Affairs:

Regulatory affairs, also known as Government affairs is a department within regulated industries like pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical industry is regulated one and require to follow strict regulations and norms from drug discovery to approval to market it. Regulatory affair department plays an important role to provide strategic, tactical and operational direction and support for working within regulations to expedite the development and delivery of safe and effective healthcare products to individuals around the world.

Common Job responsibilities in Regulatory affairs:

• Review and submission of Technical documents/Dossiers (CTD/eCTD) related to Regulatory affairs for other country Export of Pharmaceuticals Formulations.
• Preparation and Review of SOPs
• Compilation of Validation Protocols/Reports.
• Preparation, Review, Submission of Technical and other Documents/Dossiers with Drug Controller General of India/CDSCO/State FDAs for-Registration for import of pharmaceuticals Formulations and bulk drugs
• Import Licenses-Export Licenses-Manufacturing & Marketing licenses -WHO-GMP Certification-No Objection Certificates etc
• Liasioning with DCGI/CDSCO/state FDA offices/Directorate General of Foreign Trade /FICCI/PHD Chamber of Commerce etc.

Educational Qualification Required:

• Post graduate candidates of pharmacy and science stream is preferred.

Jobs in Sales Department:

Medical Representatives:

Medical representative is a front-line sales member of pharmaceutical sales team. Medical representative’s key responsibility is to generate business for its company.

Medical representatives are the persons who persuade to doctors to convince him/her to prescribe their brand of drug to patients. They also provide molecule information (dose required, how to use, directions, indications etc), answers doctor’s query, keep doctors up to date about latest medical advancement, deliver products sample along with company promotion and generate sale for the company.

Qualification requirements:

• Qualification required for medical representative vary company to company. Multinational pharmaceutical companies prefer to appoint Pharmacy graduates as sales representatives whereas small pharmaceutical companies also recruit B.Sc. or simple graduate candidates.

Area Sales Manager:

Area sales manager is higher sales position than medical sales representatives. He/she look after a large area and having- or more medical representatives under him/her.

Job responsibility of area sales manager is to

• Manage, train and motivate existing sales team to increase sales.
• Monitor sales team performance, analyse sales data, periodical forecasting and reporting to regional sales manager.
• Developing sales and marketing strategy to increase sales
• Collecting customer feed back

Requirements for Job:

• Experience as Medical Representative

Regional Sales Manager:

A Regional Sales Manager is responsible for the sale of company’s products or in a specified region or geographical area. Regional Sales Manager handles a group of area sales managers plus medical representatives in their team and covers large territory or area. Key responsibilities of regional sales managers are collaborating with senior sales team to implement a sales goal in regional as well as handling area sales manager and medical representatives.

Zonal Sales Manager:

Zonal Sales manager is upper level sales manager than regional sales manager and responsible for whole zonal territory of company’s sales.

Other Sales Positions:

• General Sales Manager
• Vice President Sales
• President Sales

B2B Sales Executive/Manager:

Above mentioned sales team generally work at primary customers i.e. Doctors, Chemists etc. But there are many other sales types in pharmaceutical industry i.e. Institutional sales, Pharma franchise concept etc. For dealing in such type of businesses, pharmaceutical companies appoint persons to handle these works

Educational Qualification for this post:

• Graduate or MBA

Product management:

Product management department work is to deal with new product development, business justification, planning, verification, forecasting, pricing, product launch, and marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product management is good career option in pharmaceutical industry.

Educational Qualification and Experience:

• MBA or PG in Pharma with 3-6 years’ experience in pharmaceutical sales and marketing

Jobs in Purchase Department:

Purchase is equally important as sales. Without good purchasing ability, it is not easy for a company to maintain its stock, inventory and ultimately continuous sale without any disturbance. So, having a good purchase department is equally important as of sales. Common Jobs opportunities in purchase department is as follow:

Purchase Executive:

Purchase executives are responsible for achievement of business objectives by ensuring timely supply of requested input materials i.e. raw materials, packing Material and etc.

Qualification requirements:

• Graduation

Purchase Head:

Purchase heads lead the team of purchase office to work efficiently and effectively.

Qualification Requirements:

• At least graduation with 3-5 years in purchase

Administration:

Human Resource (HR) Department:

Human resources department who is responsible for new recruitment and management of existing employees. Key roles of HR department are as follow:

• Recruiting and staffing
• Compensation and benefits
• Training and learning
• Labor and employee relations
• Organization development

Qualification requirement:

• MBA in HR

Accounting Department:

Every pharmaceutical company has account department to handle various works like maintaining the general ledger, reviewing financial statements, preparing financial reports, assisting with audits and budgeting processes, and reconciling accounts etc.
Billing and invoicing are also come under account department. Account department has many job profiles like data entry operator, accounts, CA etc.

Qualification:

• B. Com or high related education

Receptionist:

Receptionist handles the works like Serving visitors by greeting, welcoming, and directing them appropriately. Notifies company personnel of visitor arrival. Maintains security and telecommunications system. Informs visitors by answering or referring inquiries etc.

Supporting Staff:

There may be many job profiles in pharmaceutical industry that works as supporting hands for above mentioned or not mentioned job profiles in pharmaceutical industry.

Jobs in Research & Development:

A research and development (R&D) department conduct number of highly important roles within an organization. They are responsible for research, planning, and implementing new programs and protocols into their company or organization and overseeing the development of new products.

Research Scientist:

Research scientists are responsible for designing, undertaking and analysing information from controlled laboratory-based investigations, experiments and trials. You could work for government laboratories, Contract researched organisations (CRO) and pharmaceutical companies having R&D centres.

Qualification:

• Minimum of Master in Pharmacy, microbiology, chemistry etc.

Senior Research Scientist:

Senior research scientists lead the formulation, development, and optimization of new programs, designs, and prototypes. Participate in research formulating and writing with other staff.

Education Qualification:

• Minimum of Master in Pharmacy, microbiology, chemistry etc. with experience

Clinical Research management:

In clinical research management, reading protocol, designing the database and need to make sure that protocol related information (clinical data) are captured and it meets the desired quality standard before handing over to Statistician.
Clinical data manager plays a key role from inception of a clinical trial to its end. Any life science graduate or postgraduate can apply for this.

Clinical Research Manager:

Clinical Research Manager is responsible for clinical monitoring process and the administration of clinical trials. Supervises CRAs in in-house and on-site monitoring, filing, and clinical trial administration. He/she look after the adherence to SOPs, Good Clinical Practice and other regulations.

Education Qualification:

• Clinical Research manager requires bachelor’s degree in a field related to their clinical work, ranging from biology to life sciences and bio-engineering with experience

Clinical research associate:

Clinical research associates generally keep in touch with clinical sites i.e. hospitals where the clinical trial is conducted. They visit the sites regularly, check the site activities, Clinical trial protocol compliance and any other site related issues. You need to travel a lot in this profile.

Education Qualification:

• Clinical Research manager requires bachelor’s degree in a field related to their clinical work, ranging from biology to life sciences and bioengineering

Clinical Research Coordinator:

Clinical research coordinators work at clinical sites with Principal investigator (PI) in many site activities especially entering the clinical trial data into the database. They also respond to CRA (Clinical Research Associate) and Data Manger’s queries.

Education Qualification:

• Clinical Research manager requires bachelor’s degree in a field related to their clinical work, ranging from biology to life sciences and bioengineering

Medical coding:

Medical coders translate the Disease, adverse event and procedure to standard code based on Reference Medical dictionary. Clinical research industries and insurance companies both require the Medical coders.

Education Qualification:

• Minimum of Graduation or certified medical Coding course certificate

Pharmacovigilance:

Pharmacovigilance (PV or PhV) jobs responsibility is related to pharmacological science i.e. collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products.

Education Qualification:

• Postgraduate or graduate degree in Bioscience/Life Sciences (i.e. pharmacy, Botany, Zoology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Genetics, Biotech)

Clinical Record Manager:

Record manager reviews the documents for its completeness, index them and save in assigned destination.

Education Qualification:

• Bachelor degree with accredited program certification

Centralized monitoring associates:

Centralized monitoring associate has to monitor site performance, take appropriate action and provide recommendations about timely corrective action. It is also called risk-based monitoring.

Education Qualification:

• Bachelor degree with accredited program certification

Educational and writing Jobs:

Medical Writing:

Medical writing job responsibility is to write documents related to medicine and healthcare. It involves to write, edit or development of documents in printed or digital documents for a wide range of disease, research or drug related information for healthcare professionals or general public.
Medical writing job profile require knowledge in both writing and medical science.

Education Qualification:

• A degree or post-graduation in science such as biology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacy or chemistry etc

Scientific writing:

Scientific writing is a technical form of writing that is designed to communicate scientific information to other scientists. In general, Scientific writing is non-regulatory writing; for example, writing an abstract, content of the website, press release, presentation any medical communication etc.

Education Qualification:

• A degree or post-graduation in science such as biology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacy or chemistry etc

Pharmacy Teaching:

Teaching is well respected profession but it is less paid profession if we talk about pharmaceutical industry. There are lot of pharmacy colleges in India and you can join a college depend at your educational qualification. If you are B. Pharmacy the you can teach to D. Pharmacy students and If you have master degree in pharmacy then you can teach graduation students.

Read Related: 

• List of Pharmaceutical Businesses
• Steps for Starting a new business

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