Pharmaceutical – Embark the flight of opportunities.

Pharmaceutical, one of the fastest growing industry in country, always hunt for qualified and skilled manpower to meet it’s market demand. The Indian pharmaceutical companies continue expanding their base despite the slowdown. The Indian pharmaceutical industry seems to be more stable as compared to other industries and is expected to continue with impressive performance.

According to available figures, the size of the Indian Pharmaceutical industries grew from Rs. 30,200 crore in 2007 to Rs. 33,500 crore in 2008 and further expected to grow Rs. 140,000 crore in 2020. India is known as pharmacy of the whole world especially to third world countries. The pharmaceutical products manufactured in India are exported to more than 200 countries including USA, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom and Brazil. India is also the leading supplier of AIDS drugs to the world. Pharmaceutical exports (valued in US dollar terms) registered an impressive growth rate at 30.7 % terms during April – October 2008 compared to corresponding period in the previous year. This growth further increases to 38.5 % when valued in rupees terms. Notwithstanding the fears of a global recession, pharma exports witnessed a growth of 25.2 % in 2008-2009. The Department of Pharmaceuticals estimated to have creation of 5 lakh new jobs within next four years involving investment of Rs. 5,000-10,000 crore through public – private partnership model.

Pharmaceutical industries usually employ pharmacy graduates and post graduates for most of the operations. The various activities include manufacturing, quality control (including quality assurance), and distribution (marketing). The expertise required to perform all these activities is usually included in the course programs of Pharmaceutical Sciences or Pharmaceutical Technology. Being a knowledge based industry, special skills are required to competently perform all these operations or activities.

The available career opportunities for pharmacy graduates in pharmaceutical industries and government/private sector include:

Manufacturing Chemist or competent technical staff – Manufacture of medicine take place under active direction and supervision of manufacture chemist. The pharmaceutical production companies need such persons to obtain license for manufacturing. Graduates of pharmacy with 18 months of experience in manufacturing are treated as competent technical staff under Drugs and Cosmetics Act which regulates the Drug Industries. This job of looking after manufacturing of medicines is very interesting and responsible. There are scopes of promotion too to the highest position as works manager or production manager.

Quality Control/Quality Assurance – Quality Assurance is the process for ensuring the quality of pharmaceutical products as per standard specified in National or other approved pharmacopoeias. Quality Assurance is a component of Quality Assurance program which deals with checking of representative samples of production to find out their compliance with standards. The graduates with aptitude in analysis of pharmaceuticals and handling of sophisticated instruments find the job interesting. There are promotional scopes too from Quality Control chemists to Quality Assurance Manager.

Marketing – Pharmaceutical marketing is different from marketing of other consumer goods. Here, real consumer – the patient, has little or no choice. The marketing target segments are doctors and chemists. Thus the job is more challenging and requires special skill and training as they deal with highly qualified doctors in one hand and the professional business man. This is a never saturating professional area and jobs are available always. The sales personal are called as medical representatives or business executives. They can grow from medical representatives to general manager. A person having pharmaceutical education background is given preference. All pharmaceutical giants deploy their medical representatives in market to compete with other manufacturers and expand their market share.

Apart from manufacturer, pharmaceutical educated people are required in other fields as well. There are private and independent drug testing laboratories too. The graduate pharmacist can join these laboratories as analyst. Pharmacists are required in various government hospitals, dispensaries for process of drug procurement and control. Intake of medicines, drugs and other remedies takes place under supervision of pharmacist or druggist, so this too a pharmaceutical educated person can opt as a career.

This is all about some fields which rapidly growing pharmaceutical industry offer as a career. All leading pharmaceutical, medicines and remedies manufacturers like Cipla, Mankind, Dr. Morphen, Glaxo, Ranbaxy, Pfizer, Wockhardt, Cadila, Sun Pharma etc. have their units across the country and hire big manpower every year. Career growth in this industry will depend upon person’s analysis of exploring opportunities and overcome challenges. All the best to all aspirants who want a successful career in pharmaceuticals!