Field Based Medical Roles for Physicians in the Pharmaceutical Industry

I had the opportunity to interview a friend and colleague from my residency and fellowship program.

Dr. Andy Cagle and I trained in pediatric residency and pediatric endocrinology fellowship together at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Andy is currently the Director of Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) at Provention Bio.

Andy had some great words of wisdom about his career in the pharmaceutical industry. His career path is also a great example of how a physician can move from clinical practice to industry.

He shares his approach to finding his first non-clinical role for a physician in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Out of fellowship, Andy joined a group of community adult endocrinologists as their only pediatric endocrinologist and built his practice caring primarily for patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. He built a practice within this adult endocrinology practice which he describes as being a “solo practice”; he was essentially working 24/7, 365 days a year and that was not sustainable.

His options were:

• a physical move to find another community practice with more ped endos
• move back to an academic center
• pharmaceutical industry

Here’s where his network came into play – he talked to other people that worked in the pharmaceutical industry to understand what a career might look like.

He then explains how he decided what companies to focus on:

“I looked at the products I used for my patients and determined what companies marketed those drugs”

He found the following: NovoNordisk, Sanofi, Eli Lilly – all had insulins that he used for his patients with type 1 DM.

Novo Nordisk had a job posted that interested him – a “field based medical role” and he shares “I had no idea what that actually was!”

Andy describes his discussion with the physician that was hiring for this role … he asked what the job actually entailed.  The family physician who was also a diabetologist explained “you teach and you have experience treating patients, right? well that’s what you do – you learn everything about our products and then you go out and teach, use your credibility as a physician and your clinical expertise to guide and teach”. 

Andy’s response:  “wow, you get paid for that!?”

In this field based role, he initially had responsibility for Indiana only. As people at the company recognized the value he brought, his territory expanded to 3 states including Ohio, Indiana and Illinois but he describes being asked to travel around the country to meet with physicians and share his experience. One thing he enjoyed about the role was the exchange of information – learning from practicing physicians and also sharing his knowledge with them.

Something that Andy and I both enjoyed early in our careers in the pharmaceutical industry was the ability to interact with the top echelon of experts in your field.  As Andy put it “I got to meet and have scientific discussions with the people that wrote the textbook chapters I read during fellowship!”

Andy shares “the industry stuff – we aren’t taught that in training – but it can be learned” but “you can’t teach the passion of medicine, the clinical expertise and medical knowledge that you learn in medical school, residency and fellowship” 

Andy and I talked about that first role at Novo Nordisk…

Did the job description require industry experience?

YES! – and it made him “afraid to apply”; he also admits he probably did not apply to some other jobs that had that industry experience requirement.   

It’s a great lesson for him now because he is careful about how he writes job descriptions for roles he is hiring for. 

It is also a critical lesson for the readers… even if a job description says that industry experience is required —

that is likely not to be a hard and fast exclusion for a physician that is interested in entering the pharmaceutical industry.

Andy has spent about ten years in the pharmaceutical industry now. 

In the next blog post I’ll continue his story from going back into clinical practice to where he is now as the Director of MSLs.