A Career in Medical Sales and Medical Sales Management

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Written by Roy Carlisle this focuses on pharmaceutical selling and describes how, in a properly integrated commercial operation, sales is the active arm of marketing, the 'coal face' between the company which is selling its products and its customers.

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This is a reprint of Chapter 12 from the book, Careers with the Pharmaceutical Industry - 2nd Edition which was edited by Dr Peter D. Stonier and comprises 27 chapters contributed by individual experts in their fields. Each chapter provides a valuable overview of a different role and helps the reader understand the qualifications required, career options and sources of further reading.

PREFACE to the book - 2nd Edition
by Dr Peter D. Stonier

The first edition of this book appeared in 1994 and has been received favourably enough since to warrant a second edition some nine years later. The original title 'Discovering New Medicines' appeared a little opaque for those seeking to learn about careers in medicines research and development. So for this second edition the opportunity has been taken to say it as it is: ‘Careers with the Pharmaceutical Industry’. This reflects careers both in the industry, which in the UK employs some 60,000 people, and those supporting, servicing and regulating the industry in its contribution to medicines research, representing up to 250,000 people, in academia, healthcare, government, contract research and consultancy.

As before, it is not possible to cover all the variants of jobs and careers that exist in this complex and evolving industry; notably absent is the manufacturing sector, business management and administration. However, it is hoped there are enough entry points that are recognisable, so that light is thrown on the different career courses in pharmaceuticals, at the core of which are research and development, marketing and sales.

Nine years is not long in the life-cycle of a pharmaceutical product in that it takes on average 12 years to develop a new medicine from promising new molecules discovered in the laboratory, and those that were early in development when this book first appeared are only now being introduced onto the market for the benefit of patients. The principles of consistent endeavour by professionals achieving incremental progress in knowledge and technical application in new products, which were laid out in the preface to the first edition, are still valid today.

Nevertheless, throughout the 1990s and 2000s there have been many changes in the environment of medicines research; changes in philosophy, direction, organisation, communication, financing and regulation. Much of this perhaps reflects a natural competitive evolution of renewal and re-engineering, responding to the economic business cycle and to the relative merits and successes of individual products, as well as to the potential of future product pipelines. The mapping of the human genome, the growth of information technology through increased computing power and communications via the Internet, and the globalisation of medicines R&D to international standards are just some of the changes which will have a major impact on the way we both perceive and conduct discovery research, development and marketing of medicines long into the future.

Change in the business environment and employment, in this as in many industries, means that the concept of jobs for life has been replaced by the need to acquire transferable skills through continuing education and training, and to accept greater flexibility and mobility in career development. Today, temporary project team membership in a matrix organisation can lead to as much goal attainment and job satisfaction as vertical promotion through the organisation did yesterday.

This book sets out to interest those seeking information about a career in medicines R&D, one of our most challenging, stimulating and successful industrial activities. It is hoped it will also be of interest to those already engaged in one area, who seek career development or a move to another sector either within or outside a pharmaceutical company. As before, it might also interest those observers who seek to be informed about how medicines are discovered and developed and the activities of those working in the field.

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