Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
Pharmaceutical Medicine
Pharmaceutical medicine is the scientific
discipline concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation,
registration, monitoring and medical aspects of marketing of
medicines for the benefit of patients and the health of the
community. Pharmaceutical medicine has been recognised formally in
the UK as a full specialty since 2002 but Physicians have been
involved in one or more parts of this process for as long as
medicines have been developed and the role of doctors has evolved
over the last century alongside the specialty itself. In the
UK today, over 1200 pharmaceutical physicians work in the
Pharmaceutical Industry, within a strict legal and regulatory
framework, and also take a lead in the application of professional
codes of medical governance. Further information on pharmaceutical
medicine can be sought via the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
and the British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians.
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
The Faculty of
Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM) of the Royal Colleges’ of Physicians
aims to maintain the highest professional standards in the
specialty through activities such as the setting of the Diploma in
Pharmaceutical Medicine and other examinations and supervising
specialty training in pharmaceutical medicine. The FPM is a
professional membership organisation with approximately 1,400
members who are practising or retired pharmaceutical physicians or
those with a professional interest in the speciality. Approximately
35% of Faculty members are based outside the United Kingdom. The
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine's mission is to advance the
science and practice of pharmaceutical medicine by working to
develop and maintain competence, ethics and integrity and the
highest professional standards in the specialty for the benefit of
the public. The Faculty seeks, through its activities, to bring
about an improvement in the health of the public. For more
information visit the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine's
website.
The British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians
(BrAPP)
BrAPP is a professional
association for medically qualified doctors who work for, or on
behalf of, the pharmaceutical industry. It is a subscription based
organisation which has close links with the FPM and the University
of Cardiff, with which it jointly organises a post-graduate course
in pharmaceutical medicine. For more information visit the
British Assiciation of Pharmaceutical
Physician's website.
Careers in Pharmaceutical Medicine
Careers in pharmaceutical medicine encompass
three main areas: those working in pharmaceutical companies, those
working in clinical research organisations and those with within
medicines regulatory agencies. The largest employer of
pharmaceutical physicians in the UK are pharmaceutical companies,
which range in size and scale from very large companies such as
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to very small start-up organisations
with just one product in development. Physician roles within the
industry can range across virtually all disciplines but generally
fall into either Medical Affairs or Research roles. Irrespective of
the type of role most companies recognise the value of having well
trained and capable people within the organisation and invest in
the development of their staff.
Medical Affairs:
By providing healthcare professionals, regulatory agencies,
advocacy groups, and professional organisations with medical and
scientific information and education, the Medical Affairs function
enhances sales and marketing efforts and complements the work of
Research & Development, to promote evidence based use of
medicines for the benefit of patients and healthcare professionals.
These roles provide a bridge between research and development and
commercial operations through leadership of and input into medical
communications, clinical studies, outcomes research and disease
management programs.
Research and
Development:
R&D encompasses very early, lab-based drug discovery,
pre-clinical assessment and clinical testing of potential
medicines. Most physician roles are involved in drug development,
which includes the design and conduct of phase I-IV clinical trials
that are required to assess whether any potential medicine has the
necessary profile to be approved by regulatory agencies, reimbursed
by healthcare payers and fulfil an unmet medical need.
Entry into Pharmaceutical Medicine
Entry level roles will not require previous
pharmaceutical medicine experience but most employers will look for
a reasonable level of clinical experience. The FPM recommends
that entrants have successfully completed a minimum of four years
postgraduate clinical training in approved training posts. It is
not possible to undertake specialty training in the pharmaceutical
medicine without this. Some roles may also require a higher medical
qualification, such as MRCP, MRCS or FRCA , this will depend on the
candidate, role and employer. For information and advice about
previous clinical experience, potential entrants to the specialty
are encouraged to contact the FPM.
Most employers will post vacancies on their
web sites and in medical journals such as the BMJ and many also use
recruitment agencies and internet channels such as LinkedIn. For
information about recruitment please contact BrAPP.
Once into the pharmaceutical industry, many
companies will offer career and professional development. Some of
this will be internally organised, with the help of externally run
courses and the curriculum for specialty training in pharmaceutical
medicine serves as a structure to guide and formalise the training
with the aim of achieving specialist accreditation in
pharmaceutical medicine. The main route to obtaining specialist
registration in pharmaceutical medicine is by undertaking
Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training, for more information,
visit the FPM web site.
The purpose of specialty training in
Pharmaceutical Medicine is to produce accredited pharmaceutical
physicians, who are equipped with specialist knowledge and
comprehensive skills and competencies to practise to the highest
ethical and professional standards, for the benefit and safety of
patients and the public, in the development and maintenance of
medicines.
In summary, pharmaceutical medicine is a
specialty that has played a pivotal role in bringing medicines to
patients to address areas of unmet clinical need for many years but
has, in recent years, become more formalised and structured in
terms of professional and educational development. The
formalisation of the discipline as a recognised medical specialty
and the implementation of specialty training have helped existing
and potential pharmaceutical physicians to plan their careers and
maintain the highest professional standards. These changes have
added to the main attraction of pharmaceutical medicine, which is
the ability to work in a challenging and dynamic environment, which
is different to clinical medicine but still requires the skills and
competencies of a physician with the benefit of helping thousand or
even millions of patients by bringing valuable medicines to the
patients who need them most.