Careers: Pharmacy, anyone? Maintaining health is the major concern of the developed countries whereas a third-world country like Pakistan is still striving to combat poor health conditions of its people. A number of dangerous diseases are prevalent due courtesy ever-growing population, poverty, hunger and lack of proper resources This situation has also increased the demand of pharmacists throughout the world.
In recent years the growing need of health care professionals, have given way to
degree programmes in
Pharmacy at many Pakistani universities. Of them some well-reputed universities, recognised by Pakistan Pharmacy Council, are University of Karachi, Bahauddin Zakariya University, University of the Punjab and Baqai Medical University.
These universities offer four-year bachelor level programmes (B-Pharm) and one-year deficiency courses to complete a five-year Pharm-D degree programme. The increasing demand and reputation of this profession, plus handsome package offered by local as well as multinational companies gives a student a smooth path to go on. The general eligibility criterion to seek admission in pharmacy programme is to complete intermediate in science (biology group) with at least 60 per cent marks or any other equivalent examination.
“The pharmacy degree holders can choose
manufacturing jobs and sales and
marketing jobs,” says Munir Ahmed, a pharmasict.
The job profile for a pharmacist may vary for his different roles and responsibilities and is assigned on the basis of his qualifications and experience. However, for entry level positions, most people land up as management trainee in both manufacturing and marketing departments.
Regarding the jobs’ requirements, Mr Ahmed says that the entry level jobs in the manufacturing department mostly require candidates with B-Pharm or Masters degree, with chemistry as their major subject. For sales and marketing, candidates with an MBA degree with B-Pharm or Pharm-D are preferred.
The starting salary range for manufacturing jobs is Rs8,000 to Rs12,000 in local as well as in multinational companies, and for a post in sales and marketing department, starting salary offered is about Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 depending on the competency of the candidates. The
pharmaceutical companies also offer about Rs40,000 a month to applicants who come with two to three years experience in the field of sales and marketing of pharmaceutical products.”
Some of the well-known pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan are Abbot Laboratories, Brookes Pharmaceutical, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Merck Pakistan, Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan and Roche Pakistan. And, some of the most preferred institutes to hunt down the fresh candidates for pharmacy-related jobs are Dow Medical College, University of Karachi and Baqai Medical University, says Mr Asif Iqbal, Employment Manager, Roche — Pakistan.
“For management positions, we prefer MBAs from IBA and LUMS with an additional MBBS degree from DMC or Pharm-D degree from Baqai University or University of Karachi but MBAs with extraordinary skills and a diploma in pharmacy from polytechnic institutes are also accepted,” says Asif Iqbal.
The other options are to work in the hospitals or pharmaceutical companies and teaching at a university as a lecturer so. Pharmacists can also move to a secondary-level job such as regulatory affairs, clinical research, commercial manufacturing/quality assurance or medical sales, marketing or information and technical writing. Pharmacists moving to commercial management fields can get enrolled in MBA programme and after its completion can orientate their pharmaceutical knowledge and experience to the health economic environment.
Besides opportunities available in our own country, pharmacists are also in great demand in firms abroad, and anyone with the drive and skillcan achieve this target.
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