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 occurrence & 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

Pharmacy education can be perceived at various levels as a diploma, degree, doctoral education, etc.

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

B. Pharmacy (4yrs duration) is a graduate-level education. It exposes the individual to all the scopes and techniques used in a pharmaceutical career. The main subjects like medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy (deals with medicinal plants and their uses), pharmacology (about drug and its fate in the body), and pharmaceutics (about methods to deliver the drug) are dealt with other supportive subjects.

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

M.Pharmacy-(2yrs duration), As post-graduate education after completion of B.Pharmacy. It is a specialization in any one of the above subjects of B.Pharm.

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

Pharmacy is one of the health careers with varied and diverse job opportunities. The job or work in pharmacy includes

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

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

Production chemist in the production and formulation of the 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 a container with suitable labels on them.

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

In R&D, the work is to try for either new drug molecules or develop a new formulation or dosage form from an already existing drug.

Both are aimed at future industrial demands by the market.

The R&D also aims to record all newly reported drug side effects in the market for future corrections. Some drugs are very efficient in some regional populations, 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 the 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 is explored on humans for its efficiency and tolerance.

3. Teaching positions in 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 government permit or license and also maintenance of quality as per Govt. orders.

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

One needs to be analyzing and understanding and always 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.

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

Experience shows that in the long run, you will be paid a stable and handsome salary.

Since drugs have become an everlasting need for human survival, your chances for employment and career growth are always bright.