Are you not sure about Pharmacology career? Here you will get the answer.

Pharmacology degrees are highly valued in the pharmaceutical industry - an industry which offers numerous opportunities, challenges and rewards. As well as initial drug discovery, expertise in pharmacology can also be used in areas such as clinical trials, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, patenting and scientific writing.

A degree in pharmacology provides a solid grounding in scientific knowledge. This degree provides an understanding of medications, their sources, chemical properties, biological effects and therapeutic uses. The degree also explores drug interactions in biological systems, the formulation and operation of clinical trials as well as drug regulation and the marketing of pharmaceuticals.

  Pharmacology job roles:

· Pharmacologist – Investigates how drugs and chemicals interact with biological systems and carries out the research to help in drug discovery and development.

· Research scientist (medical) – Plans and executes the experiments to increase the scientific understanding of drugs. It also aims to develop and improve the drugs.

· Research scientist (life sciences) - Designs, conducts and analyses experiments to increase scientific knowledge on topics related to biology; may also aim to develop new, or improve existing, drugs or other medically-related products.

· Clinical research associate - sets up, monitors and completes clinical trials. A clinical trial is a scientific study of the effects, risks, efficacy and benefits of a medicinal product.

Pharmacologist role in developing new medicines:

Develop new medicines in biotechnology industry

Would you like to develop biological tests in cellular or tissue systems or in whole animals and use them to identify new medicines?

Pharmacologists have a key role in designing these tests that are essential to select compounds with the characteristics to become a new medicine. These tests involve measures of effectiveness and safety as well as for duration of effect. A medicine must reach the desired site of action and remain there for a sufficient length of time to produce the beneficial effect. The medicine must then be eliminated from the body without producing side effects. The pharmacologist designs tests to study the absorption and removal of the medicine from the body.

Are you a team player and enjoy experimental work, presenting your results and like the chance to be involved in developing a new medicine?

Pharmacologists in industry produce papers, which are used to obtain approval of medicines by regulatory authorities as well for scientific publication in journals. You will attend scientific meetings round the world to present the results of your work. A scientist in industry at ICI Pharmaceuticals, James Black, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in discovering medicines for the treatment of heart disease.

Clinical trials in human volunteers

Do you want to discover whether a potential new medicine developed in the laboratory has the potential to cure diseases in humans? The first studies in humans are carried out in healthy volunteers. You would design new tests that can be carried out safely in volunteers that would indicate that a new compound was both safe and effective. You would bring knowledge of diseases, an understanding of human biology, the technology of measuring systems and an understanding of statistics and the design of experiments. You would like working in teams with toxicologists, medical staff and technologists. Pharmacologists working in clinical trials produce papers, which are used to obtain approval of medicines by regulatory authorities as well as for scientific publication in journals like the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. You will attend scientific meetings round the world to present the results of your work.

You can enter such organisations with a first degree as a research assistant or having studied further to obtain an MSc or PhD.

Assess safety in contract toxicology companies

Do you want to ensure that new medicines are safe?

Safety pharmacology is required by regulatory authorities worldwide to exclude potential side effects of novel compounds. As a safety pharmacologist you would design new tests to determine if a new compound could produce side effects. In addition, you would be involved in conducting safety tests to indicate the potential for compounds to produce life threatening events like cancer and changes in the reproductive system. You would be interested in experimental design, high technology measuring systems and the science linking biological changes in animals with a therapeutically useful response compared with the potential to cause side effects.

Are you a team player and enjoy experimental work, presenting your results and like the chance to be involved in developing a new medicine?

Pharmacologists in contract laboratories produce reports for their customers in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology company, which are used to obtain approval of medicines by regulatory authorities, as well for scientific publication in journals like the British Journal of Toxicology. You will attend scientific meetings round the world to present the results of your work. You might become interested in the business side of the contract laboratory and use your science and experimental background to meet clients and sell your company’s test systems. You might become involved in working with the Regulatory Authorities around the world to develop new test guidelines.

You can enter such positions with a first degree.

Research into medicine actions in universities and research institutes

Do you want to discover something new about the body or help to discover a new medicine? Much of the research to understand how the body works and how medicines act has been conducted in Universities and research institutes, many funded by medical charities. For example, Professor John Vane, who worked at the Royal College of Surgeons laboratories in London, received the Nobel Prize for discovering that aspirin stops pain and reduces fever by inhibiting a specific enzyme. Often Universities and research institutes work in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. The former do the fundamental research and the latter apply that knowledge to development of new medicines.

You can enter such organisations with a first degree as a research assistant or having studied further to obtain an MSc or PhD.

Teach pharmacology at university

Would you like to educate the next generation of professionals and scientists? Have you the skills to communicate your ideas and to motivate students? Pharmacology is an important part of many University courses, including the professional courses of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Science and Nursing, as well as many science courses.

University teachers are normally researchers in a specific field as well as teachers of students, and will have at least a PhD as well as probably some post-PhD research experience.

Medical writing

Scientists and doctors need to communicate their work to others. Can you help them? Have you a talent for writing and putting over ideas in a simple and exciting way? Medical writers work in pharmaceutical companies or contract companies and produce clinical trial reports, study protocols, papers for scientific publication and advertising material. They may help to organise scientific meetings around the world where new results are presented to fellow scientists, the medical profession and the media.

Other writers work for scientific journals, such as Nature and New Scientist, editing the work of scientists and doctors and ensuring high quality publications. The world of publishing is being transformed with the use of electronic media.

With a degree in Pharmacology you can learn medical writing by working

· in a pharmaceutical company

· in a specialist medical writing company

· for a medical or scientific publisher

Recruitment

The Pharmaceutical Industry continues to be a growth area in the economy and companies are always looking out for suitable recruits within all areas from medical sales, through basic research to regulatory affairs. Finding the right people is a long and difficult process. This area of business is often passed on to consultants and professional recruiting agencies.

· Do you have the skills to locate the right person for a senior position in the pharmaceutical industry?

· Can you discuss the position from a position of knowledge and understanding?

· Do you want to use your scientific knowledge indirectly in this way rather than directly working in a laboratory?

Careers in this area can be entered directly from a degree in Pharmacology or after further training at M.Sc./Ph.D. level. Specific training in human resources will often be given by the company

Patents, regulatory affairs or information science

Do you realise that there are many other jobs in pharmaceutical companies? Many Pharmacologists, having gained a grounding in experimental science in industry, bring their skills in biology and experimental data to support the teams which bring products to the market.

You could train as a patent agent and be involved in writing patents to protect the design of your company products from being copied by competitors. Governments around the world control the entry of new medicines into the marketplace and Pharmacologists may develop a specialised knowledge of these regulations and be able to summarise pharmacological, toxicological and clinical data. This whole area is being revolutionised by information technology. For many doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals, the Medical Information department is the first point of contact when they need to find information on your company’s product. The Medical Information Department scientist answers technical enquiries to support the safe and effective use of the company’s products. Pharmacologists may become involved in the systems which are used to report adverse events of compounds in the market or in clinical trials.

During your course you will have developed many transferable skills, such as problem solving, analytical skills, communicating, team working, information technology and numeracy. As a pharmacology graduate with three or four years industry experience you are ideally placed to enter careers in such these areas. You would receive training in the relevant area.

Conclusion

So Far from it – the future of pharmacology ought to be bright. Which are the currently fashionable areas that funders wish to strengthen? Integrative biology/physiology, chemical biology/biological chemistry, pharmacogenetics, experimental medicine and systems biology. Look up the definitions of these various areas and an awful lot of it sounds like pharmacology. The horizon is definitely expanding and there will also be a need to understand at a molecular level how drugs are working. Where departments have survived they seem to be doing rather well. The notion of personalised pills has caught the imagination and, even before the input of genetics, is the essence of pharmacology – trying to understand how to make drugs precisely effective and safe and also establish how they work. If the future is ‘pretty much like the present only longer', we need to get our act together now.

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