The drug discovery industry holds a wide range of research opportunities and varied tracks for career advancement, while staying focused on high-quality research just like academia.
Pharmaceutical companies have ongoing needs for biochemists, organic chemists, cellular biologists, molecular biologists, microbiologists, genetic biologists, and in vivo pharmacists at both the basic and applied research levels.
As already mentioned, the creation of new drugs is a risky, time-consuming and expensive business. So it may take up to more than 10 years to bring a new drug to market, which in turn requires the effort of thousands of people from many scientific disciplines.
In such a huge and complex organization, young scientists have the option to select from many different career options.
The pharmaceutical industry is no longer limited to biology and chemistry, but can also offer long-term careers in various disciplines and subdisciplines. In fact, “cross-functional” scientists are actually becoming an increasingly valuable commodity.
Systems biology is beginning to take hold, and this is going to increase the opportunity for scientists with multiple degrees, pharmacology with genomics, information technology with biology etc.
Among the many opportunities, some common drug discovery disciplines related to Biology are :
- Assay development
- Cellular biology
- Electrophysiology
- Genomics and molecular biology
- Medicine
- (Behavioral) pharmacology
- Physiology
- Protein biochemistry, expression, and synthesis
- Protein engineering and biopharmaceuticals
- Proteomics
- Structural biology and crystallography
- Veterinarian services.
Disciplines related to chemistry are Analytical Chemistry, Medicinal and synthetic chemistry, Rational design, Computational chemistry, In silico and de novo design and High-throughput screening.
The biggest motivation for drug discovery scientists is to find out a novel medicine. Imagine what it will be like to be the first one to synthesize an important new treatment for Alzeimer’s disease, what it will be like to discover a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer, and see it work! This desire and excitement is what is the most that industry scientists are working for.
Additionally, the pharmaceutical industry also offers a substantially higher salary (most of the times double the academic level), provides better working conditions, plentiful equipment and a superior work environment. Needless to say, it is of course a prestigious career option as well.
There are many scientists who want to stay in the science world, but don’t like the idea of a lab-based career. Drug discovery is unique in a way that it offers multiple career options that let you stay close to science without the daily grind of laboratory life.
A basic course in the related areas can be a stepping stone to careers in :
- pharmaceutical patent law
- business planning and strategy
- project management
- operations management
- publishing, media
- regulatory support
- business development (setting up alliances with biotechnology partners)
- communications and promotional activities
- management consulting and competitive research.
These disciplines are all critical to drug discovery, are intellectually stimulating, and give a great opportunity to stay within science while leaving the lab behind.
Some other career areas to opt for are:
- Molecular drug targets
- proteomics
- bioinformatics, and drug design
- Delivery systems and formulation design
- Pharmacokinetics
- pharmacodynamics
- Pharmacogenetics
- pharmacogenomics
- and clinical evaluation.