I am looking at a career in pharmacuetical research and drug development. I've seen PharmD's doing drug development and it seems like a PharmD is more versatile. However would a PhD be better suited doing R & D for a pharmaceutical company?
I am looking at a career in pharmacuetical research and drug development. I've seen PharmD's doing drug development and it seems like a PharmD is more versatile. However would a PhD be better suited doing R & D for a pharmaceutical company?
I have to say, you post is very informative, so thank you. however, I wanted to ask you if you are going to join a dual program ( PharmD/PhD) or not? and to ask you if you can clarify how can this offer more financial backing that a PharmD alone? bcs i think that with a dual program, and lets assume the PhD part was in the drug delivery field, you will end up either working for a company or teaching, and both do not support financially as much as a PharmD does. Don't you think?Hey all,
I've been in pharmaceutical research for about 2.5 years now (private industry and federal grant). I recently transfered from R&D to finance/marketing within my company as a manager for a greatly increased salary. I hold two B.S. degrees and am entering PharmD school next year.
I, much like all of you, have debated the Ph.D. vs PharmD degrees long and hard. As of recent, I've been accepted to 2 pharmacy schools for a pharmD and over the years have been given many opportunities for Ph.D. research funding/M.S. at VERY good universities across the nation. I intend to move into a business perspective with my PharmD and obtain an MBA later on.
However, as I have noticed while working with even the most globally renown Ph.D. scientists, is that they are worked very hard with very little respect. Within the pharmaceutical industry money is not found within research; overall you can bet your bottom dollar its in the CEO/President's/Director's pocket.
As a pharm researcher, whatever patents you will hold will immediately be commandeered by the company and you will not see a dime. Furthermore, MD's/PharmD's/White Collars look down on Ph.D's as there are officially too many. Which opens up a whole new can of worms. The Ph.D is trite---Simply, too many out there and too many being awarded. Hence, the difficulty keeping a research job let alone even finding a steady one.
It really does shatter my dreams of following my research passions. I loved my research while in the lab but really felt pressured with deadlines. Research cannot be rushed, but that seems to be the consensus today (i.e. Vioxx - Merck). While in the lab at times, we scientists would be pressed with deadlines to publish papers that weren't even close to credible--truly a sad story.
In my opinion, you can continue researching with a PharmD/Ph.D joint degree. I would looking into a few of those programs--may take you longer to graduate but at least in the future you will have more to fall back upon (financially).
Best of luck.
I have to say, you post is very informative, so thank you. however, I wanted to ask you if you are going to join a dual program ( PharmD/PhD) or not? and to ask you if you can clarify how can this offer more financial backing that a PharmD alone? bcs i think that with a dual program, and lets assume the PhD part was in the drug delivery field, you will end up either working for a company or teaching, and both do not support financially as much as a PharmD does. Don't you think?
Iam also interested to know the benefit of having a PharmD/MBA Degree. What options and benefits doed this provide?
Thank you in advance