Pharmacy Careers: Education & Job opportunities information

Pharmacy is a career with stable & diverse job opportunities. There are thousands of companies involved in drug manufacture, testing and marketing pharmaceuticals and their number is increasing due to ever growing market demand for drugs against diseases.

The occurance & discovery of new diseases, infections and disorders also puts a heavy demand on new drug discovery.

Heavy growth in population and the rise in frequency of people falling into diseased category demands higher and constant supply of drugs to the market.

This dierctly creates more employment oppurtunities in pharmacy

The pharmacy education that can be perceived at various levels in India as diploma, degree, doctoral education etc.

Diploma in pharmacy-2yrs, This paves way to be a pharmacist in a pharmacy retail outlet or act as pharmacist in hospital to dispense drugs.

B.Pharmacy (4yrs duration) is a graduation level education. It exposes the individual to all the scopes and techniques used in pharmaceutical career.

Pharm-D- 6yrs graduation or post graduation for 3 yrs after B.Pharmacy. This course is specially intended for individuals willing to persue career or jobs in clinical pharmacy..

M.Pharmacy-(2yrs duration), As post-graduate education after completion of B.Pharmacy.

PhD: 2-4yrs As a doctoral education. This provides an oppurtuinity to go for research in pharmacy related subject which involves either research on drug delivery,synthesis or extraction of new drug molecuels or pharmacology research & evaluation of drugs.

Career in pharmacy is very varied and has diverse job opportunities. The job or work in pharmacy includes

1. Retail pharmacy outlets: This is less favoured in India in comparison to that in Western countries. Here the pharmacist role is to dispense drug to the patient on reference by a physician's prescription. But it is one of the profit making business in abroad.

2.Pharmaceutical industry: a pharmacy graduate has diverse work opportunities like

Production chemist in production and formulation of medicine.

Quality control (Q.C) to check if the manufactured drug satisfies all the recommended official standards.

Labeling & Packing: Drugs formulation after manufacture are packed into container with suitable labels on them.

Quality assurance (Q.A) to assure the quality in the entire process of drug production starting from raw material to final stage of drug packing.

In R&D the work is to try for either new drug molecules or development of new formulation or dosage form already existing drug.

Both are aimed at industrial future demands by the market.

The R&D also aims at recording of all newly reported drug side effects in the market for future corrections. Some drugs are very efficient in some regional population while in other regions may not be so effective or produce severe side effects.

Clinical research involves two important stages as

a) Preclinical research or study of drug: here the drug or formulation new to the market is tested for its efficiency and tolerance on animals. It involves professional animal handling skills.

b) Clinical trials: Here the drug that passes the Preclinical studies are explored on humans for its efficiency and tolerance.

3. Teaching positionsin academic institutes: To teach diploma, B.pharm graduates & M.Pharm students in colleges.

4. Drug Inspectors: To inspect the drug manufacturing firms and retail outlets for govt. permit or license and also maintenance of quality as per Govt. orders.

During education you need to gain knowledge of medical and science terms.

Need to be analyzing and understanding and always have update on knowledge of new drug arrivals in markets and other profession related knowledge.

Must have good communication skills as you may need to interact with people in all the job profiles mentioned above.

Increase in pay and position depends on experience, promotions and good relations with steadfast colleagues and friends .

Experience shows that on long run you will be paid stable and handsome salary.

Since the drugs have become ever lasting need for human survival, your chances for employment and career growth are always bright.