Working in the pharmaceutical
industry and career pathways for
future pharmacy students
Pre-Pharmacy Society Meeting
Rocco R. Duran R.Ph
Senior QA Executive – Global Quality Operations
11/10/11
Working in the pharmaceutical industry and
career pathways for future pharmacy students
Agenda:
 My career/experience
 General opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry
 The external environment, impact on the pharmaceutical
industry and what it means to current students
 Q&A
Working in the pharmaceutical industry and
career pathways for future pharmacy students
My career/experience:
 Pharmacy technician in the US Air Force prior to enrolling
at the Rutgers college of Pharmacy (Ernest Mario).
 Summer employment at Warner Lambert between 4th and
5th year of pharmacy school.
 Graduated from Rutgers College of Pharmacy in 1982.
 Employed at WL, Sandoz, GSK and AstraZeneca in
various production, technical services and quality roles.
 Highlights – production of key products, development and
optimization of products, various aspect of quality
assurance/control and varied experience with regulators
Working in the pharmaceutical industry and
career pathways for future pharmacy students
General opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry:
 Three general areas: Research & Development,
Operations and Sales & Marketing.
 Research and development – scientific type work and MS
degrees and PhD in pharmaceutics, pharmacology etc are
useful.
 Operations – supply chain (production) work and MBA’s
and MS in pharmacy sciences are useful.
 Sales and Marketing – commercial work and MBA’s in
Marketing and other business type concentrations are
useful
Working in the pharmaceutical industry and
career pathways for future pharmacy students
The external environment, impact on the pharmaceutical
industry and what it means to current students:
 Shift in payers of medical services and Rx products
 Health care reform in the US and globally
 Customer/patients affordability issues
 Legislative and regulatory shift towards generics
 Regulatory environment and the high hurdle for new
products
 Patent life expiration
 Pharmaceutical company strategy – branded generics,
emerging markets, outsourcing/off shoring/consolidation
Working in the pharmaceutical industry and
career pathways for future pharmacy students
Questions?