Forging a future in pharmacy

The pharmaceutical industry is multi-disciplinary and pharmacists are fighting the on-going pandemic as front-liners, along with doctors and other healthcare service providers.

Over the last few years, advancements in science and technology have contributed to a dynamic employment market for pharmacists all over the world.

Pharmacists can work in many departments or branches of the industry.

In Bangladesh, the demand for pharmacists in hospital settings has increased to monitor the complexity of medication therapy and to assure drug quality.  
The Business Standard spoke to four industry professionals who discussed the role of pharmacists in the industry, along with career prospects and the future of the profession.

Pharma is a vast industry with many subsections

Professor Dr. Shamsun Nahar Khan
Department of Pharmacy, East West University
Post Doctorate Harvard University, USA 

What made you interested in studying pharmacy and pursuing your career in this particular field?
While growing up, I got enormous inspiration from both of my parents to build my career in science.

My parents created the platform for me and my sister to choose our careers and be successful in our respective professions.

My mother was a medical professional and she retired from the pharmacology department of Bangladesh Medical College.  

There are many doctors in our family.

I got familiar with medicines by watching these doctors provide different prescriptions to their patients.  

In fact, when my sister and I would play, she would always be the doctor and I the pharmacist. And it became true!

For a girl to be successful in her career, it is very important to get the family's support; I am very fortunate to get support and encouragement from my parents and be in this amazing profession.

My mother always inspired me to be a scientist.

Later in life I got in touch with many scientists and professionals who also helped to excel my career.

I always knew I would be in the scientific field to give something back to the society.  

I received several scholarships throughout my career.

My campus life and research facilities always encouraged me.

Also, because of  my father's profession, I could observe the pharmaceutical industry very closely as a child.

I was lucky enough to meet many nationally and internationally recognised scientists from an early age.   

The entire system inspired me to be in this field.

What are the job opportunities in this field?

It is a multi-dimensional sector and there are many branches of pharmacy where interested individuals can build their careers as industry professionals.

It is also a multi-dimensional profession, for example I am in the teaching profession which could be an option for emerging pharmacists.

This is a vast industry with many divisions and departments.

Each department requires specialised individuals.

Pharmacy students can develop their career in pharmaceutical marketing, or work as research professionals.

Pharmacists can work on quality assurance, or emphasise on drug discovery and development.

Each hospital has a pharmacy unit which requires experienced pharmacists.

It is very important to deliver the correct medicine to patients.

Hospital pharmacies used to be run by diploma pharmacists but as the market changed and the technology evolved, the government took initiatives to run model pharmacies and pharmacists are working there.

Pharmacists with bachelor's degrees are working at different hospitals like Evercare or Square to run the operations of the hospital pharmacies.

Besides doctors and nurses, clinical pharmacists also work closely with patients.

These pharmacists check the pharmacokinetic profiles to ensure the pattern of proper distribution of medication in the patient's body.

This branch is also known as hospital or clinical pharmacy.

In Bangladesh, we are also trying to develop the profession, but the concept has not yet been introduced vastly in our country, it is in an initial stage.

What are the prerequisites to study pharmacy?

One must have interest in science and till 12th grade you must study biology in order to pursue further education in pharmacy.

It was very competitive to study at the pharmacy department back in the days; it was not easy to get admitted at public universities.

What is the prospect of this field abroad? Any scholarship opportunities in any particular country?

Like I already said, pharmacy is a multi-disciplinary profession and there are many subjects to study such as molecular biology, basic biology, basic biological techniques, biomolecules, pharmaceutical industrial technology, drug designing and many more.

So, students can pursue further studies in one of these subjects and attain PhDs.

As a matter of fact, many of my students are doing PhDs and masters all over the world.
I must mention that many of them with good academic scores are getting enrolled in full funded PhD programs upon completing GRE.

Students can avail European Union based scholarship programmes such as Erasmus Mundus.  

Students can apply for scholarships in Germany and the UK.

Also, I must add that it all depends on the individual's determination.

How is the demand for pharmacists growing during this pandemic?

I believe in the post pandemic economy, the demand for pharmacists would increase.

The industry has been active, and it is rapidly growing.

Pharmaceutical products have demand in every corner of the world.

Bangladesh exports medicines and products in more than 153 countries, hence I strongly believe that this industry would grow and the demand for pharmacists would also increase quickly.

We always meet the higher standards while exporting these products, which is why the industry is growing.  

Pharmacists can also be entrepreneurs

Ahmed Kamrul Alam
Director of Marketing, Square Pharmaceuticals Limited

What made you interested in studying pharmacy and pursuing your career in this particular field?
I always wanted to contribute to the healthcare industry of our country, and pharmacy is an important profession as pharmacists produce the basic tool for doctors, which is medicine.

What are the job opportunities in this field?

A pharmacy graduate can work in many disciplines and there are many options for pharmacists.
In Bangladesh, pharmacists can work as academics, or they can have government jobs at the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

Pharmacists can work as hospital pharmacists, and Bangladesh government is also emphasising on this.
Besides having corporate jobs in pharmaceutical marketing, pharmacists can be entrepreneurs and have their own pharmacies and be involved in manufacturing.

What are the prerequisites to study pharmacy?

One has to be good in biology to become a pharmacist and it is a basic requirement in HSC or A-level.

These days, students can study pharmacy at various private universities but there was a time when only public universities offered degrees in pharmacy.  

What is the prospect of this field abroad? Any scholarship opportunities in any particular country?

If anybody wants to work abroad in the pharmacy industry, there are many opportunities.

In developed countries, pharmacists have higher demand and better job prospect.

If a student has good results, then he or she can avail scholarships both at home and abroad.

How is the demand for pharmacists growing during this pandemic?

In general, we are thinking that the pharmacy business has increased rapidly during the pandemic.  

This is true; however, business has only increased regarding Covid-19 medicines.

But across the industry, business also shrank as demand for other medicines decreased due to limited hospital and patient activities.

Every single industry has been affected due to the pandemic including pharmacy, but Covid-19 medicines and other relevant materials have helped the pharmacy industry to thrive.

In future, I strongly believe the pharmaceutical business will show a  positive trend in ever involving innovation, research and availability of new products.

Community care is a new field for pharmacists

Dr Md Ashrafur Rahman
Assistant professor, North South University and the vice president of Bangladesh Neuroscience Society

What made you interested in studying pharmacy and pursuing your career in this particular field?

I did not plan to be in the pharmacy industry.

One of my teachers suggested that it would be a good profession for me.

It is important to be good in biology and chemistry in order to study in pharmacy.

What are the job opportunities in this field?

We can divide the industry in many sections.

And if we think of its production aspect, there are many opportunities in pharmaceutical marketing, regulatory affairs, supply chain, and pharmacists can also work in human resources at pharmaceutical companies.

If we consider factory or plant jobs, production management, quality assurance or quality control etc could be job areas for pharmacists.

Besides these industry jobs, pharmacists play key role in hospital pharmacy and model pharmacies.

Community care or hospital pharmacy is a new field for pharmacists to explore their careers.

What is the prospect of this field abroad? Any scholarship opportunities in any particular country?

If we talk about higher studies, pharmacy is a widely recognised profession worldwide.

Pharmacology, pharmaceutical technology, medicine – these subjects always had higher demand worldwide.
And there are 10 to 15 different sectors of pharmacology including neuropharmacology and molecular science. The opportunities are numerous.

Students can apply for scholarships in any one of these subjects in countries like Canada or USA since many

Bangladeshi pharmacists are doing pretty well in those countries.

Many of my colleagues and friends are working as registered pharmacists in Canada.

Students of both private and public universities can apply for scholarships or fellowships in those countries.

Applying for MSc or PhD in USA or Canada would be easier for those who have good knowledge in medicine and drugs.

How is the demand for pharmacists growing during this pandemic?

If we consider the worldwide situation, we would have better opportunities to export medicines.

Companies like Beximco and Square are already doing business internationally.

I believe it would become a billion-dollar matter and exports would increase.

If we pay attention to the Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) industry, it would become a huge market globally.

Globally our export window would open if we can produce high quality products which we are already doing.

This would transform Bangladesh.

You will have to be good in biology to study pharmacy

Md Ziauddin
Deputy general manager of marketing, The Acme Laboratories Ltd.
 

What made you interested in studying pharmacy and pursuing your career in that particular field?

I aspired to study in pharmacy when I was a high school student.
I did not want to be a doctor but at the same time, I wanted to become a health care professional.

So, I became a pharmacist and since I also had interest in corporate jobs, I combined both of my areas of interest.
What are the prerequisites to study pharmacy?

When I was studying in pharmacy, (in the early 2000s) back then only public universities offered courses in pharmacy and it was a bit difficult get into public universities.

It is very obvious you will have to be good in biology to study pharmacy.

What are the job opportunities in this field?

Jobs at pharmaceutical companies can be divided into two sections-factory and head office.

At the head office, marketing is a major division.

R&D and production are also major job sectors at pharmaceutical companies.

Many pharmacists choose to be researchers or academics as well.  

Marketing is among the top preferences among pharmacists who want to have corporate jobs in the industry.

Doctors and pharmacists do well in marketing since pharmacy marketing is very different from consumer marketing.

What is the prospect of this field abroad? Any scholarship opportunities in any particular country?

Opportunities are ample, and the demand for pharmacists is increasing globally.

The profession is more respected in many developed countries than our country.

In this golden era of communication and technology, with good GRE score and academic results, students can apply for scholarships.

There are opportunities to work in pharmaceutical technology and get fund for researches.

How is the demand for pharmacists growing during this pandemic?

The demand for some medicines and preventive products has increased and this would not decrease easily, they would be in demand even after the pandemic.

Hence, the market for those preventive products has expanded for lifetime.

However, the demand for other medicines has dropped.

Our business was affected too to some extent, but we have also learned a lot.

We are now focusing on the production of anti-viral, medicines, vaccines etc.