PharmD Vs Biostatistics

[123zzyx]

Hi All,
I am a foreign pharmacist with industry experience in QC. I will be moving to United States soon but won’t be eligible to practice pharmacy or take FPGEE because of my 4 year degree. I would like to pursue further education but I’m unable to decide which career path to choose. I am equally torn between two options – PharmD vs MS Biostatistics. I am comfortable with either one of them.

Can anyone please share your thoughts on the career prospects of PharmD vs Biostatistician?
Am I limiting my options by selecting Biostatistics?
Will PharmD degree hold value in Pharmaceutical industry?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[fewaopi]

The pharmacy job market is already tight for many American citizens and the future isn't that bright. It's virtually impossible for foreigners to become a pharmacist in the US short of marrying an American for citizenship.

Most here probably don't know much on biostats, but I see more "foreigners" working in biostats than I do pharmacists. I'm only guessing but the skills in biostats could be transferrable to other fields too. Not to mention the MS in biostats would be much cheaper and a quicker route to a job.

Consider also that pharmacy is strongly discouraged to American students unless they don't qualify for any field and need something of last resort.

 

[Sine Cura]

You should have a good sense of what you really want to do and plan your education accordingly.

"Industry experience in QC" might refer to the drug discovery side. In that case, both biostatistics and U.S. pharmacy education would be mostly irrelevant.

With a MA/MS in biostatistics, well you might be "limited" to doing statistical programming work in industry but you would be more likely to obtain work as a programmer as opposed to having a PharmD, where there are theoretically a variety of roles in the clinical development side or medical affairs that someone with a PharmD could do, but no particularly compelling reason that someone with a PharmD be hired for those roles off the U.S. PharmD assembly line without relevant industry/fellowship experience, with the exception of drug safety (pharmacovigilance) or drug information.

As a plain PharmD fresh off the assembly line, generally speaking you would not know enough about clinical research, enough about biostatistics, enough about regulatory affairs, enough about outcomes research, enough about PK, etc.

 

[123zzyx]

Thank you fewaopi and Sine Cura for taking your replies.

Yes, my experience is on the Drug Discovery side. It won't count for much though. I will be getting my Green card pretty soon (via family) so I wont be entering the market as a foreigner. But my foreign degree is definitely looking like a hindrance in every aspect.

Why is PharmD discouraged to American students? Is it because of the job market saturation or did the field lose its significance in US?

Regarding entering Pharma industry with a fellowship - it'll be at least another 3 years + 1 year fellowship! Even with an internship does Pharmd's in industry treated equal to PhD?

 

[lord999]

Thank you fewaopi and Sine Cura for taking your replies.

Yes, my experience is on the Drug Discovery side. It won't count for much though. I will be getting my Green card pretty soon (via family) so I wont be entering the market as a foreigner. But my foreign degree is definitely looking like a hindrance in every aspect.

Why is PharmD discouraged to American students? Is it because of the job market saturation or did the field lose its significance in US?

Regarding entering Pharma industry with a fellowship - it'll be at least another 3 years + 1 year fellowship! Even with an internship does Pharmd's in industry treated equal to PhD?

Well, dealing with both sides...it really depends on where you got your BS Pharm to the degree that an MS is taken seriously in the business. If you are EU, SA, or Canadian, no problem with either pathway (and actually, the EU makes entering immigration easier). If you're Canadian, there are actually certain circumstances that FPGEE is waived so long as the degree was acquired recently and you do your 1500 hour intern sentence in the US. If you are from the Americas otherwise, it's a bit harder due to the requirements of proving language (and if you don't want to be pigeonholed into statistical programming and only allowed to enter as an analyst with a glass ceiling, you have to demonstrably prove language skills). Unfortunately, the industry has some loaded prejudices against East and South Asian degrees as being practically worthless for American industry work, even with a US acquired MS, most of them are stuck at their initial positions and require the PhD to be taken seriously (but are still widely discriminated at for analytic director positions even now). In my experience, there is a particular disdain for Indian and Chinese immigrant statisticians in the health care services research field that is never really spoken out loud but is a known third rail. There's a special society for the East Asian statisticians that functions as a support group due to this reason.

If you are going for FPGEE, the process is intentionally difficult due to both past experience with the older pathway FPGEE converted pharmacists (widely thought of as performance inferior with the exception of the Canadians who historically outperform the Americans in the licensing exams) and the job market tightening as it stands.

It is definitely my experience that PharmD's never promote into analytic director positions even with fellowship experience unless they are unusually spectacular statisticians on the side (and I mean someone who gets attention from ISPOR and JSM-ASA good). I can count the number of analytic directors in the industry that are purely PharmDs on one hand without my thumb. The technical gap between PharmD training and PhD training in health services is too far for the PharmD's to bridge normally. PharmD's routinely promote in the marketing divisions to director and VP grades, but usually have strong sales/marketing backgrounds.

 

[123zzyx]

Well, dealing with both sides...it really depends on where you got your BS Pharm to the degree that an MS is taken seriously in the business. If you are EU, SA, or Canadian, no problem with either pathway (and actually, the EU makes entering immigration easier). If you're Canadian, there are actually certain circumstances that FPGEE is waived so long as the degree was acquired recently and you do your 1500 hour intern sentence in the US. If you are from the Americas otherwise, it's a bit harder due to the requirements of proving language (and if you don't want to be pigeonholed into statistical programming and only allowed to enter as an analyst with a glass ceiling, you have to demonstrably prove language skills). Unfortunately, the industry has some loaded prejudices against East and South Asian degrees as being practically worthless for American industry work, even with a US acquired MS, most of them are stuck at their initial positions and require the PhD to be taken seriously (but are still widely discriminated at for analytic director positions even now). In my experience, there is a particular disdain for Indian and Chinese immigrant statisticians in the health care services research field that is never really spoken out loud but is a known third rail. There's a special society for the East Asian statisticians that functions as a support group due to this reason.

If you are going for FPGEE, the process is intentionally difficult due to both past experience with the older pathway FPGEE converted pharmacists (widely thought of as performance inferior with the exception of the Canadians who historically outperform the Americans in the licensing exams) and the job market tightening as it stands.

It is definitely my experience that PharmD's never promote into analytic director positions even with fellowship experience unless they are unusually spectacular statisticians on the side (and I mean someone who gets attention from ISPOR and JSM-ASA good). I can count the number of analytic directors in the industry that are purely PharmDs on one hand without my thumb. The technical gap between PharmD training and PhD training in health services is too far for the PharmD's to bridge normally. PharmD's routinely promote in the marketing divisions to director and VP grades, but usually have strong sales/marketing backgrounds.

Thank you so much lord999 for explaining the real world situation. Coming from India, I can see where my future is headed!! I guess I have to face the music either way!