Regulatory Affairs or Pharmacy?

[BH07]

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I am interested in both regulatory affairs and pharmacy, but I'd like to know the pro's and con's of each and what they have in common.

I heard USC's regulatory program is highly regarded and that many of the graduates are sought after, but I heard the pay is not that great though depending on the person, the sky is the limit.

In comparison, pharmacists make 100k-120k right out of graduation but doesnt get that much higher after a while.

can anybody give any thoughts/points of view

if you know ppl in the regulatory affairs career, let me know how are they doing

 

[deleted205891]

I am interested in both regulatory affairs and pharmacy, but I'd like to know the pro's and con's of each and what they have in common.

I heard USC's regulatory program is highly regarded and that many of the graduates are sought after, but I heard the pay is not that great though depending on the person, the sky is the limit.

In comparison, pharmacists make 100k-120k right out of graduation but doesnt get that much higher after a while.

can anybody give any thoughts/points of view

if you know ppl in the regulatory affairs career, let me know how are they doing

You can get into regulatory affairs as a pharmacist, though you might not get into reg. affairs straight out of school. There were lots of pharmacists I met on my promotional regulatory affairs rotation while at school, and honestly I thought the job itself was pretty boring.

 

[BH07]

thanks for the response. what if the cost for a pharmacy school for me is around 200k (I am California resident, so going to the out of state pharmacy schools isnt cheap either, alot of them charge 37-41k per yr for out of state students)

I know USC's reg program is about 1-2 yrs depending on speed of study/working part time and its much more affordable.

I can't imagine retail pharmacy being less boring than regulatory affairs haha, unless I find out the hard way

 

[pharmasaur]

I'm a student at USC. Judging just by your post, you don't really know what regulatory affairs is. So I really recommend you look more into it. Secondly, it doesn't sound like you're *seriously* interested in pharmacy school because you bring up salary and cost instead of asking about what the job entails, and also because as a pre-pharm, you're already hating on working retail. Retail is the bare bones of pharmacy and although it's been tough lately to work for the chains, it's the core of pharmacy (alongside inpatient).

To answer your question you can do a joint PharmD/MS in Regulatory Science here and it takes the same amount of time - you take MS classes every summer starting the summer in between first and second year and a lot of the classes are Fri/Sat 8-5. The summer before 4th year, you get hooked up to an unpaid internship. You don't have to do the MS in Regulatory Science though, you can probably take a few classes on your own (at a cost) or during the 3rd year you can pick an Industry class elective. You can also pick an industry rotation for your 4th year or you can do a 1 yr fellowship after you graduate. You can also do the MS after you graduate if you want but it'll take another year. A PharmD/MS will raise your tuition cost to 250k. IMO not worth it.

Again, it really sounds like you don't know what you're talking about....no offense...regulatory science is pretty boring and all you do is prepare and submit documents to the FDA. It's all paper pushing.

 

[deleted205891]

As much as I hate retail, one word I would NEVER use to describe it is boring. It's just very stressful and you're often treated like crap by your management.

 

[BH07]

I apologize if I was not sure what I was talking about, I'm just trying to make decision whether to pursue a Pharm.D or an MS Regulatory Science, the MS regulatory science is cheaper and much more affordable for me, but I'm concerned my job prospects are very limited, even though on this board, it seems like pharmacists job prospects are also very limited nowadays.

doesn't the regulatory affairs people do other stuff besides submitting papers to the FDA, pretty sure there is more to it than paperwork, especially with all the medical devices/food safety stuff

 

[deleted205891]

I apologize if I was not sure what I was talking about, I'm just trying to make decision whether to pursue a Pharm.D or an MS Regulatory Science, the MS regulatory science is cheaper and much more affordable for me, but I'm concerned my job prospects are very limited, even though on this board, it seems like pharmacists job prospects are also very limited nowadays.

doesn't the regulatory affairs people do other stuff besides submitting papers to the FDA, pretty sure there is more to it than paperwork, especially with all the medical devices/food safety stuff

If by other things you mean go over every single word of a document to make sure it follows federal regulations, and participating in meetings that stretch for hours (I was at an 8-hour meeting during my rotation), then yes.

 

[pharmasaur]

I apologize if I was not sure what I was talking about, I'm just trying to make decision whether to pursue a Pharm.D or an MS Regulatory Science, the MS regulatory science is cheaper and much more affordable for me, but I'm concerned my job prospects are very limited, even though on this board, it seems like pharmacists job prospects are also very limited nowadays.

doesn't the regulatory affairs people do other stuff besides submitting papers to the FDA, pretty sure there is more to it than paperwork, especially with all the medical devices/food safety stuff

I don't think an MS in Reg Sci is very versatile. You can't do much else with it if you decide you don't like that field. Reg Sci and Pharmacy are very very different. As a pharmacist you're helping patients and dealing with meds and using clinical knowledge (as I'm sure you know). In Reg Sci you work for a pharmaceutical company and prepare 100+ page documents on drugs trying to get approved. You don't use clinical knowledge and you definitely don't need a PharmD to do it. I think you need to think about what you want to *do* and not which degree is cheaper because you can't pick a career based on which degree is cheaper.

Keep in mind most Reg Affairs jobs are on the East coast b/c most of the pharma companies are there.

The best way to learn about what a career in Reg Sci entails is to do job searches and read about the descriptions and see if you see yourself doing that. ex: http://www.healthcarejobsite.com/job.asp?id=65310511&aff=AC44BA2E-E3EB-4DBC-8BDB-9FCE01C58B09

And no you are wrong...there is not more to it than paperwork LOL it's ALL paperwork! Your job is to prepare and submit technical documents.

 

[MedAffairer]

I don't think an MS in Reg Sci is very versatile. You can't do much else with it if you decide you don't like that field. Reg Sci and Pharmacy are very very different. As a pharmacist you're helping patients and dealing with meds and using clinical knowledge (as I'm sure you know). In Reg Sci you work for a pharmaceutical company and prepare 100+ page documents on drugs trying to get approved. You don't use clinical knowledge and you definitely don't need a PharmD to do it. I think you need to think about what you want to *do* and not which degree is cheaper because you can't pick a career based on which degree is cheaper.

Keep in mind most Reg Affairs jobs are on the East coast b/c most of the pharma companies are there.

The best way to learn about what a career in Reg Sci entails is to do job searches and read about the descriptions and see if you see yourself doing that. ex: http://www.healthcarejobsite.com/job.asp?id=65310511&aff=AC44BA2E-E3EB-4DBC-8BDB-9FCE01C58B09

And no you are wrong...there is not more to it than paperwork LOL it's ALL paperwork! Your job is to prepare and submit technical documents.

You are right that it is a lot of paperwork, especially for entry-mid level regulatory specialists. As you move up into more managerial positions, you lead teams in putting together clinical trial applications or marketing applications (a lot of paperwork), but also it will require some strategy and expertise to determine what the best route is to approve a drug the fastest (ie. your team may decide to hold off on including a manufacturing site in the NDA and add the site in a supplement). It is requires project management if this is your thing. Regulatory also works closely with marketing which has a strong hold on when and where a product should be marketed.

As a regulatory affairs expert with years of experience, you have the option of working in consulting company or regulatory agency. On that note, there are plenty of regulatory jobs (mostly mid-high level positions) in the westcoast