can a pharmacist become a principal investigator of a clinical trial?

im really interested in medicine, specifically clinic trials, but i dont think i could cope with the stress of going to study medicine. I'd love to do clinical trials so it was to ask if i took up pharmacy, specifically clinical pharmacy, could i become a principal investigator?

I've had a talk on a career in clinical trials so I'm hoping I can give some insight.

The PI (a doctor or similar) of a clinical trial often co-ordiantes with someone who is trained in designing clinical trials i.e. the PI comes to the clinical trial team to co-ordinate and organise one.

It is possible to get into clinical trials with a pharmacy degree, however you will often have to work your way through the ranks and working your way through from assitant to co-ordinator and beyond

so i could potentially, with hard work, strive to become a PI with experience? i think I'd really love being a PI but i dont think i could do medicine with junior doctor stress so id like to pursue it through pharmacy if possible haha

im really interested in medicine, specifically clinic trials, but i dont think i could cope with the stress of going to study medicine. I'd love to do clinical trials so it was to ask if i took up pharmacy, specifically clinical pharmacy, could i become a principal investigator?

It's not very common, especially in the UK. It may be possible in smaller studies however I would be very surprised if a pharmacist was deemed qualified to be PI for a commercial trial.

The vast majority of PIs are medical doctors with substantial experience. This is due to their responsibility to evaluate serious adverse events etc. and generally have the final say in making medical decisions regarding the care of patients. The PI also has the responsibility to sign off all other staff for the study.

It's easy to get confused with US clinical research systems when you look online, as the roles are quite different, however in the UK it tends to be research physicians as PI or Sub-I, research nurses as study coordinators and sometimes clinical trial assistants or technicians working in the lab or assisting with minor procedures or bloods.

Pharmacists can, however, become a CI (chief investigator) who is in charge of trial design. There are also lots of additional supporting roles in the pharmaceutical industry which would enable you to be involved in the running/management/design of a study.

what would happen if i became a pharmacist, could i not train in research at all to boost my chances of being able to become a PI

As stated above, it may be possible on smaller studies or observational studies. Unfortunately this isn't something I do much of personally as I work on larger international pharmaceutical studies.

For larger commercial studies, I have never seen a PI who is not an experienced medical doctor. The role of the PI is to manage the medical care of patients and the running of the study at site. Their main role is medical. They have other research physicians working under them and need to be a source of extensive medical knowledge. As a pharmacist there is no training (other than a medical degree) which would qualify you to do this. As I said above, there are other roles within research you may be qualified for (with additional training) however I would be amazed if any of the larger UK CROs would consider a pharmacist for a PI role. Being a PI is not the only worthwhile or interesting role in research. Why is it that you are only interested in this role?

im really interested in medicine, specifically clinic trials, but i dont think i could cope with the stress of going to study medicine. I'd love to do clinical trials so it was to ask if i took up pharmacy, specifically clinical pharmacy, could i become a principal investigator?