The Student Room Group
Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Pharmaceutical science

To become a pharmaceutical scientist, what is the career path you need to follow? From my understanding you do a degree, say an MPharm, and then you can either apply to the NHS Scientist Training programme or you would go onto do a postgraduate degree. Is this correct?

How much do pharmaceutical scientists earn? Say working for a company such as AstraZeneca, pfitzer, GSK etc. My little bro loves the idea of developing new drugs and research and I want to help him scope out his prospects. He's considered pharmacy but says he'd prefer to actually be involved with developing new drugs as opposed to prescribing ones that already exist.

Any help would be much appreicated!
Reply 1
Avatar for Nucleotide
Nucleotide
OP
10
Bump?
Original post by Nucleotide
To become a pharmaceutical scientist, what is the career path you need to follow? From my understanding you do a degree, say an MPharm, and then you can either apply to the NHS Scientist Training programme or you would go onto do a postgraduate degree. Is this correct?

How much do pharmaceutical scientists earn? Say working for a company such as AstraZeneca, pfitzer, GSK etc. My little bro loves the idea of developing new drugs and research and I want to help him scope out his prospects. He's considered pharmacy but says he'd prefer to actually be involved with developing new drugs as opposed to prescribing ones that already exist.

Any help would be much appreicated!


Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) looks at the drugs and the effect of drugs they have on the body, as well as side effects, age restrictions, chemical make up of drugs, laws concerning drugs etc.

Pharmaceutical Science (BSc) looks at the making of drugs. The chemical make up of drugs, how to make drugs more compact and effective, technology used in the industry.

If your brother wants to be involved in making drugs, may I suggest he persue a degree with Pharmaceutical Science, with a year in The industry. He will gain work experience, and it will help him with regards to employment after graduation.
Or, a Masters of Pharmaceutical Science as he will have the chance to carry out research into developing a drug and writing about it -- and helping the scientific community out.
Or do both!

I wish him and u the very best of luck.

:biggrin:
Reply 3
Avatar for Nucleotide
Nucleotide
OP
10
[QUOTE=BewareTomato;55904535]Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) looks at the drugs and the effect of drugs they have on the body, as well as side effects, age restrictions, chemical make up of drugs, laws concerning drugs etc.

Pharmaceutical Science (BSc) looks at the making of drugs. The chemical make up of drugs, how to make drugs more compact and effective, technology used in the industry.

If your brother wants to be involved in making drugs, may I suggest he persue a degree with Pharmaceutical Science, with a year in The industry. He will gain work experience, and it will help him with regards to employment after graduation.
Or, a Masters of Pharmaceutical Science as he will have the chance to carry out research into developing a drug and writing about it -- and helping the scientific community out.
Or do both!

I wish him and u the very best of luck.

:biggrin:

Ah cool

I was researching it more and it seems a masters, preferably a PhD is essential to access the top end of the pharmaceutical spectrum

What undergrad would he have to do though? Only Kingston uni does a bsc in pharmaceutical science I think. Is he better off doing biomed/biochem and then doing a masters/PhD in pharmaceutical science?
Original post by Nucleotide
Ah cool

I was researching it more and it seems a masters, preferably a PhD is essential to access the top end of the pharmaceutical spectrum

What undergrad would he have to do though? Only Kingston uni does a bsc in pharmaceutical science I think. Is he better off doing biomed/biochem and then doing a masters/PhD in pharmaceutical science?


If he wanted to do a PhD, he could do a pharmaceutical science degree at Hertfordshire, East London or Kingston, then transfer to a Masters at Ashton or London Metropolitan Uni. *im only naming a few universities here, u will have search up more if ur interested.

A lot more universities offer a Degree in Pharmacology, which researches drugs, the effect on the body and the chemical make up (very similar to Pharmaceutical Science). These degrees can be taken at universities such as Manchester, Southampton, Liverpool and Glasgow to name a few.
Many jobs lead to working for companies that manufacture Drugs.

For any PhD, a Masters is required. Normally students who want to understate a PhD, will write their Masters after Completing their Bachelors- and leave for work, due to finances and needing work experience in the current field to know where drugs are needing improvement and to be given a insight into new technology.
A PhD can take anywhere from a Year to 5 years depending on the research and the validation of the scientific community.

A biomedical degree is a three year course, which looks into cells and the testing of diseases. I don't think this course will be helpful for ur brother, however take a look online.

A biomedical engineering course looks into the tools used in laboratories and their mechanics, working on making things such a Prothethic limbs to finding errors in new machinery.

Chemical engineering may be another option for ur brother: this is the discipline of chemicals and their structure. Their bonding, and breaking. This course will give him a wider understanding of Chemicals, in which he may choose to undergo training.

^

As u can see, there are a wide range of options for ur brother. and I know I side tracked, but it's all options, and the more u know, I feel the better choice ur brother will make for what's best for him.
Ok, I have worked in drug discovery at AstraZeneca and currently work else ware in the pharmaceutical industry. I am about to go back to uni to do a PGCE (hence on TSR).

Either Pharmaceutical Science or Pharmacology would be good options but I would strongly recommend a Russell group Uni, simply because there are proven research led universities and if you want a job in research it makes more sense, you are also likely to be taught more ‘current stuff’ and have better lab projects (and dissertation).

The best thing to do would be to do a sandwich placement, I know GSK do these and it looks like you are not far from Stevenage (GSKs largest RnD site) I would also try to get some placement experience prior to the sandwich year (as these are very competitive) any lab experience would be useful but RnD would be best (maybe wright to GSK or a small biotech company and ask for a couple of weeks work experience).

You can get jobs with the likes of GSK without post grad experience but to progress to lab management a PhD is very useful (masters not much better than BSc) if your bro wants to do a PhD look out for CASE award studentships, These are part funded by pharma companies and will involve time in their well-funded and equipped labs (I did this).
Good luck to him and PM me if you want any more info
An MPharm degree will probably be best as its an undergraduate masters - to actually be a pharmacist you have to pass the GPhC exam after a year of working in a pharmacy so you are free to complete the 4-year degree and then go onto anything else. A BSc in Pharmaceutical Science is basically just the first 3 years of a pharmacy degree, but maybe that's what you want to do as the final year can partly consist of pharmacy specific things like dispensing.
You don't need an MSc to do a PhD in the UK - I didn't, I went straight into my PhD from undergraduate.

I hope that's helpful!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you