 |
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
| |
| Health Care sector Jobs – what are my options? |
 |
by Nitin Aggarwal, M.Pharm., Ph.D. - December 6, 2011
|
Health care sector is probably the only sector that is facing increasing need of skilled professionals to fulfill the needs of ever growing unhealthy population. The job prospects in US or around the world have been at nadir, thanks to the sluggish economy. However, things are improving and the need of research, development, health care, and production is more then ever before. It doesn’t look that positive from the news-channel that you watch every day but step into the market and do some inquiries and you will know that things have starting to improve the beginning of this year. Simply, if you log into any job portal that you may see more and more number of opportunities available now than in early 2008.
For somebody who is looking for a career in healthcare sector it might be of a relief to know that there are plenty of opportunities. However, the major question that youngsters might face these days is what are my options where I would be satisfied happy and stable? Clearly the economic conditions prevailing in the nation and in the world doesn't make it easy to answer such questions. Traditionally, if you tell my grandma that you want to join healthcare, her first question would be “so do you want to become a doctor or a pharmacist”? Although lucrative, these careers are very competitive, expensive, time consuming, and are not the only careers that you can pursue in health care. With the more and more drugs going out of patent and less molecules making successfully to the markets, pharmaceutical industry is putting a lot of efforts and money into research. Therefore, for biological, pharmacological, pharmaceutical and chemical scientists good times are ahead. Contrary to the popular belief, pharmaceutical industry is spending either the same amount of revenue or even more on research as they were a few years ago. Companies, like Pfizer, who have recently faced a lot of losses including nearly a trillion dollar out of their balance sheet on Torcetrapib, might have become a little more conservative in spending then other. However, other big companies are keeping up with spending. Most of the companies have consolidated their efforts and started to focus on fewer therapeutic areas and that is why we keep on hearing a lot of downsizing of the industry. However, through out these days a personnel reshuffling has been a commonplace. For example, nearly thirty thousand personnel who got out of Pfizer facilities found positions at various other companies.
Therefore, recent graduates may want to think about career in research. A quick two-years masters in any biological, pharmaceutical, medical/pharmacology or physiological field would be a good investment of time. In the recent past, a surge in the number of students enrolling to the PhD program has also increased. Not only because laid off industry-people are joining to keep earning but partly because these people have realized that a sustainable growth needs update on the current science. Therefore, younger generation has been advised to join research and get acquainted with the latest skills and science to be ready to contribute to the research arena in the industry. The lesser know areas related to research are regulatory affairs, quality assurance and pharmaceutics formulation research. Frequently, these are the areas where a job is outsourced, or an experienced industry consultant will be called in for; however, there are two year programs specialized to train people in these areas. So how is regulatory-affairs going to be beneficial and used in the industry? With increasing efforts to bring new molecules in the market, Pharma industry has been in need of experts who can write, file and organize the NDA, ANDA, INA applications to the governmental regulating authorities such as FDA. Quality assurance is the process of assuring quality even before the product is made, and is different from quality control that checks for the quality of the product after it was made. It is to note that although we don't hear about these career options as much, all the companies are in requirement to have an active QA department. Not only this reduce the chances of failure and ensure the quality and safety of the product but also reduce the potential losses.
Within the research arena perhaps the most noticeable change is the advent of small-scale biotech industry. Traditional practice for these small-scale biotech companies has been to spend time and investment to investigate few small molecules pre-clinically or up to the early phase I clinical trials. Once the molecule(s) show some potential these companies or their molecules are bought out by the large pharmaceutical companies and further developed in hope to hit the market. However, trends have changed with the small biotech now trying to bring the molecules into the market by themselves or in collaboration with the large pharmaceuticals. The small biotech, discovery or development companies are now trying to develop therapeutically active, efficient and safe molecules from scratch. Perhaps the best example are the companies concentrated in the San-Francisco area, North Carolina research triangle-park, and the Boston area where all of a sudden in last two years there is a surge in the newer small-scale companies. These companies usually have enough start up revenue on new ‘proof of concept’ projects and they are ready to invest upfront. Needless to say that these companies are hiring more than we think they could in the areas of biological, preclinical research, clinical research, drug development, and regulatory affairs. For those with the background of preclinical research, clinical drug development, and regulatory affairs, now is the best time to reach out and find these companies. With increasing competition it is probably advised to keep updated with latest technology and knowledge and be committed to self-upgrade.
With that being said I would like to emphasize that for potential or active nurses, pharmacists, chemists, engineers, biotech scientists, pharmacologist, biologist and physicians, good times are ahead! The key to the success would be perseverance, dedication and to wait for the perfect opportunity. So go and reach out to the ever-active biotech and Pharma industry and….oh don't forget to keep upgrading yourselves.
Dr. Nitin Aggarwal is a Pharmacist and PhD is Pharmacology and Toxicology. He has been in cardiovascular pharmacology research for sometime and has contributed significantly to understanding the some of the basic cardiovascular science. His main research focus is in hypertension, cardiac failure, and myocardial Ischemia. With his clinical and basic science experience he has extensively contributed to several peer reviewed scientific Journals as an author, reviewer, and an editor.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE
You must be logged in
to recommend articles
|
 |
|
|
| Matthew B Zimmerman (Washington, PA) |
on 07 Dec 2011 at 7:00 pm |
|
I enjoyed your comments herein. Currently, I am a pharmacist
unemployed for 4 months. Prior to this I worked some 6 months and prior to that I was unemployed nearly 10 months.
The economy and poor fitting jobs have done me in. I would like to mintain contact with you in near future. If you want more information on my background you can find me on Facebook or Google me or e-mail me. Thanks!
Matt Zimmerman, Pharm.D., MHA
Washington, PA 15301
724-206-0059 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
