What research can a pharmacist do?

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Requiem

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Hey, planning to go into the field of pharmacy, if anyone could please shed some light into this for me;

I am wondering what kind of job is available to a pharmacist with an interest in research for drugs, i.e research for sports drugs for athletic performance.

Some indepth detail would be appreciated as to what is available and what's required to be involved in this kind of work, if anyone could give me some information, greatly appreciated.

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I too share the same interest in research involving sports supplements and would appreciate some help/info on this as well. I mentioned my interest to a member of the faculty during my interview and he said he might have a DO student working on something to that effect..He said they like seeing collaborations between professionals and it would be something I could be involved in. Since I am a first year and school just started I have not had the chance to ask on the particulars now that I have been accepted...Enough of my blabbering, if anyone knows the role of a pharmacist in this type of work (sports supplements) please inform the curious.
 
Look under the FAQ page for the Pfizer Career Guide in Pharmacy. There should be an ample amount of information regarding research pharmacists.
 
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From what I've heard, I believe that if you really want to do some quality + meaningful research, you should have a Ph.D (the combined degree - Pharm.D/Ph.D) and usually those pharmacists with only Pharm.D can do only basic research (research assistant, etc). Most of them are sale representatives for pharmaceutical companies. Basically, it is difficult to do research with just a Pharm.D degree.
 
Requiem said:
Hey, planning to go into the field of pharmacy, if anyone could please shed some light into this for me;

I am wondering what kind of job is available to a pharmacist with an interest in research for drugs, i.e research for sports drugs for athletic performance.

Some indepth detail would be appreciated as to what is available and what's required to be involved in this kind of work, if anyone could give me some information, greatly appreciated.

You can do research as just a pharm D, with residency training, howeverit will typically be case studies, retrospective studies and so on. Plus you will typically work under a doctor and you will do mainly clinical research. If you want to do bench or more higher level research, you have to get a fellowship, that is typically 2 years and it sets you up to be an independent clinical researcher. However, if you are thinking of hooking up with Pfizer, or Eli Lily and doing some hard core drug research, u need a PhD, as one of the posters mentioned. But for basic research, clinically oriented, you do not need a PhD.

Remember that you really gotta love it, b/c you will be taking a huge paycut to do research. Also if you want specific research like supplements, you have to ask around, what is the best way to get hooked up into that field. As in do you do residency, or do you go PhD immediately. Actually you might wanna see if you can do an internship at one of the companies that make supplements, b/c that might help get ur foot in the door and give you an opportunity to make some contacts.

Best of luck.
 
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