Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18060

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Smethurst D
Pharmaceutical medicine: making the leap
BMJ 2003; 327:s161-s162
http://archive.student.bmj.com/issues/04/02/careers/66.php

Abstract:

Ever considered working in the pharmaceutical industry? Dominic Smethurst offers an insider’s guide

I was a research registrar in the department of dermatology at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham when I made the leap into pharmaceutical medicine. For me, the main attraction was the mixture of science and business that the industry offered. But I was also beginning to feel embarrassed by the standards of NHS care, and I knew NHS research was poorly paid.

I now work as part of a team running and designing clinical trials of new drugs in healthy volunteers. I do not work for the NHS, though occasionally I work with NHS staff. I enjoy the business side of things in the industry, and unlike some NHS leavers who are troubled by the loss of contact with patients, I don’t miss the clinic.

I now work in the research and development division of our company—not sales (I do not “carry the bag”). I read existing company protocols and decide how to help make clinical trials work on a day to day basis. I am trying to make them safer, faster, more accurate, and more relevant to patients. I assess ongoing trials and advise what doctors and patients might want, and, most importantly, I try to help the study team to understand how scientific findings translate to real life medicine.

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