Medical Liaison

Started by cd87
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cd87

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Has anyone considered this pharmaceutical career path? I met a first year student at one of my interviews who said this is what she wanted to pursue. I tried looking up some information online, looks like base salary is about 100-125k. How is this similar or different to being a pharm sales rep? And is there much additional training after pharmacy school to do this? Pros/Cons? Thanks in advance
 
cd87 said:
Has anyone considered this pharmaceutical career path? I met a first year student at one of my interviews who said this is what she wanted to pursue. I tried looking up some information online, looks like base salary is about 100-125k. How is this similar or different to being a pharm sales rep? And is there much additional training after pharmacy school to do this? Pros/Cons? Thanks in advance
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I asked the industry pharmacist (under my old user name) in the mentor forum, last post:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=422094&highlight=pharmacy+industry+sales

Hope this helps 🙂
 
cd87 said:
Has anyone considered this pharmaceutical career path? I met a first year student at one of my interviews who said this is what she wanted to pursue. I tried looking up some information online, looks like base salary is about 100-125k. How is this similar or different to being a pharm sales rep? And is there much additional training after pharmacy school to do this? Pros/Cons? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

MSL is a pretty good career option, but, depending on a company, it can take quite a bit of training and work experience after pharmacy school to get one of these positions. Generally, I would say a specialty residency and a couple years of solid clinical work experience would be the best bet. That's four-five years after pharmacy school.

As far as being different from sales rep: very. The only things they have in common is that both are positions in pharmaceutical industry, and both are field-based. Sales reps have a random college degree and cannot say anything other than what is in the package insert. They are also being shed by thousands by the industry. MSLs are there for peer-to-peer communication, so they can answer advanced questions from practitioners, so their job is to keep up with the latest science in their therapeutic area. They are usually PharmDs, MDs or PhDs.

As far as pros and cons... that depends on what you want. Same things can be pros or cons to different people.
 
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