If you thought a career in the pharmaceutical industry was for those who failed to make it to a medical college, think again. True, information technology and telecommunications are the hotter career options right now, but the pharmaceutical industry has its own upsides. The industry has been growing consistently at 8-10 per cent over the last few years. Industry insiders peg the revenues generated by the Indian pharmaceutical industry at Rs 23,000 crore. With over 22,000 companies, 250 of them in the organised sector, the industry employs around 1.5 lakh people.

Even from a global point of view, the industry’s prospects are bright. According to the latest Ernst & Young India survey of multinational pharmaceutical companies in India, by 2008 about 30 per cent of the global clinical trial activities will take place outside the US and Western Europe because of the high demand for study subjects and well-trained clinical research professionals. India is estimated to capture about 10 per cent of the global clinical research market within the next five years.

These are, however, future projections. What has really happened in the past few years is that the Indian pharmaceuticals industry has changed. The industry had traditionally copied internationally-developed molecules and formulas within the patent and legal framework, manufactured drugs, and marketed the medicines. Even today, a fifth of the 22,000 plus manufacturing units across the country are engaged in making basic or bulk drugs, from which the upstream formulations are made.

Within these areas, though, new opportunities and growth areas have sprung up in recent years. Says Yugesh Goutam, senior director, human resources, Pfizer, “The pharmaceutical industry has witnessed a spate of corporate activity, including mergers and acquisitions, alliances, the entry and re-entry of foreign players.” Bigger domestic companies are looking at exporting or manufacturing for the highly profitable global generic or unbranded business in developed markets, forging alliances with multinational companies and also increasing focus on research and development.

“These factors, along with the ordinance issued by the government in December 2004, related to the Patent (Third) Amendment Act, will be the growth drivers of the industry in the years to come,” says Goutam.

As Indian pharmaceutical companies have started moving up the value chain, shifting from being bulk drug manufacturers and gradually moving into drug discovery, the general functional areas of marketing, human resources, finance, supply chain and IT or operations have evolved into challenging career options. On the manufacturing side, companies have to focus on developing new products.

Within research, areas like drug metabolism, clinical pharmacy, genomics and proteomics and biostatistics are becoming important growth areas. All these are niche areas, so candidates specialising in them will be in great demand for the next decade, reckon HR officials.

In particular, biostatisticians, pharmacology experts or experts in newer fields like molecular modelling and drug design are in great demand in the job market.

Apart from the general functions, people qualified in newer areas like intellectual property, regulatory affairs and biotechnology also have a bright future in the job market. “Currently, the need for quality intellectual capital is at its highest for this particular industry,” says Prabir Jha, vice president, human resources, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

Like in any industry, the more skill-based and knowledge-based the role gets, the higher the qualifications companies ask for. Most of the recruitment takes place for the sales function where the basic qualification required is a graduate degree in life sciences. Graduates in pharmacy do have an added advantage in the sales function, while a postgraduate degree is useful for production functions like clinical research or development, say HR professionals.

To get into the manufacturing side of pharmaceuticals, a graduate or postgraduate degree, a bachelor of science (chemistry or biology) degree or a BTech in pharmaceuticals or a degree in analytical chemistry is required. For utility services, an engineering qualification is a pre-requisite. For a clinical research associate, a bachelors or masters degree in science or pharmacy is required.

If, on the other hand, you want to get into pharmaceutical research, a doctorate in a science stream is what you need to be armed with. For research or quality assurance and control, companies look for a postgraduate in chemistry or biology. For any other support functions like finance, human resources, a management degree or specialisation in the respective field is preferred by companies.

Salary basics

The salaries are also not to be scoffed at. In research, entry level salaries are about Rs 1.5 lakh per annum, which goes up to Rs 20 lakh per annum once you become a section head. On the drug manufacturing side, base salaries are the same as in research but with some experience, and once you become a site head, you could be drawing a cool Rs 15 lakh per annum. In the marketing function, you could be making Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh as a fresher.

Aspirants can apply to over 100 institutions in India that offer degrees in pharmacy and over 200 institutions that offer a diploma. You can go for the diploma straight after your higher secondary school certificate course. To get into R&D and production, you can either aim for the IITs or go for a university degree specialising in niche areas in pharmaceuticals like quality assurance and control. A few colleges offer full-fledged degrees in pharmacy like Bombay College of Pharmacy or Presidency College, Calcutta. As pharmaceutical law is gaining importance with the emergence of intellectual property rights, a few companies have started hiring legal trainees from premier law colleges too.

So if you think you have a passion for life sciences and want to ride the pharmaceuticals boom, just go for it!