uni degrees for pharma companies

i want to work in lab-based roles within pharmaceutical companies (e.g. drug development, formulation, R&D), but i’m not sure what course and universities would be the best for this – pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, chemistry or etc.

I don’t want to be a pharmacist in a clinical or community setting, so would Pharmacy still be worth considering?
I've only applied for Pharmaceutical Sciences (with a year in Industry) at Nottingham

Reply 1

katie63

Original post

by zeph_1n

i want to work in lab-based roles within pharmaceutical companies (e.g. drug development, formulation, R&D), but i’m not sure what course and universities would be the best for this – pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, chemistry or etc.
I don’t want to be a pharmacist in a clinical or community setting, so would Pharmacy still be worth considering?
I've only applied for Pharmaceutical Sciences (with a year in Industry) at Nottingham

Hi,

I've worked in a couple of pharmaceutical companies in their drug development/R&D departments and the people I've come across have had varied degrees - off the top of my head, I've met people who have done chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, biomedicine and I did biology.

I think for a lot of these companies it's more about experience, I did a year in industry in the exact same field as my current job and that's what got me the job, so if you can do a year in industry I think it's really worth it. In most job descriptions I came across while applying, they just asked for a science-based degree so the exact degree probably won't affect your job opportunities as a graduate. I'm not sure if this will be the same in the companies you're looking at, but the ones I've been in have mainly used HPLC, GC, UV, FTIR etc as analytical techniques, so if you come across any courses that include any of those, or drug chemistry/development of any kind then you'll probably be fine 🙂

Reply 2

Kingston Maddie

Original post

by zeph_1n

i want to work in lab-based roles within pharmaceutical companies (e.g. drug development, formulation, R&D), but i’m not sure what course and universities would be the best for this – pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, chemistry or etc.
I don’t want to be a pharmacist in a clinical or community setting, so would Pharmacy still be worth considering?
I've only applied for Pharmaceutical Sciences (with a year in Industry) at Nottingham

all the options you listed could lead to a R&D career

look into the internships pharmaceutical companies offer every spring, they have lists of requirements there you can aim for.
Best, Maddie (Kingston Rep)

Reply 3

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post

by zeph_1n

i want to work in lab-based roles within pharmaceutical companies (e.g. drug development, formulation, R&D), but i’m not sure what course and universities would be the best for this – pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy, chemistry or etc.
I don’t want to be a pharmacist in a clinical or community setting, so would Pharmacy still be worth considering?
I've only applied for Pharmaceutical Sciences (with a year in Industry) at Nottingham

Hi @zeph_1n

If you would like to be part of the team actually formulating the drugs - chemistry/medicinal chemistry. However, plenty of the other research comes from testing the effect of drugs on cells or tissue, testing drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, determining structures of proteins to see where drug targets binds, assessing the strength of interactions etc. and for those you could study also biochemistry, biomedicine, pharmacology, pharmaceutical science and many more degrees.

As mentioned above - try to get work experience. Wherever you apply make sure the degree offers a placement year.

Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador).