Is there a RIGHT specialty for physicians interested in a career in the pharmaceutical industry?

Do I have to be in a certain specialty to land a physician role in the pharmaceutical industry?

This is a common question I get related to being able to land a job in the pharmaceutical industry.  

I either get the question

OR

I get an assumption from the physician that they are NOT in the right specialty.

The answer to the question “Am I in the RIGHT medical specialty?”

IT DEPENDS!

It depends on so many things… the actual job that is being hired for, the hiring manager, the company, the physician’s (applicant’s) experience (not just specialty).

Certainly, there are specialty areas that are “hot” in drug development and those are the areas where specialty or experience will make it easier to land that pharma/biotech job.

In Massachusetts, MassBio’s State of the Industry report, shows that in 2020, the top therapeutic areas include:

• Oncology (34%)
• Neurology (12%)
• Infectious Disease (8%)
• Respiratory (5%)
• Immunology (5%)
• Musculoskeletal (4%)
• Other (24%)

In California, the California Life Sciences Institute Report provides a similar distribution:

(listed from highest number of products in development to lower):

• Cancer
• CNS (433 of 1332 products in clinical development in CA)
• Infectious Disease
• Nephrology/Hormonal Diseases
• Immune
• Musculoskeletal
• Hematologic
• Cardiovascular
• Respiratory
• Gastroenterology (49 of 1332 products)

How do I interpret these lists? Based on my experience it means that oncologists, neurologists, and immunologists are in demand

AND

so are other specialties!

As physicians, it is important to remember that we are

• highly educated
• capable of immense learning… quickly
• exposed to all of these areas of medicine (especially those of you that are not specialized – internists, pediatricians, and family medicine physicians – I’m talking to you!)

If a job posting says that you need a specific specialty – that should not be a “hard NO” for you if you are not in that specialty. Do you have some experience that translates? If so, give it a go!

This is where our perfectionist approach as MDs gets in the way

If the posting says “Oncology preferred” – that does not mean they are only looking for oncologists.  Give it a go!

Read up on the specialty, read up on the company and what they are developing.

Show that you are driven to learn and adapt rapidly.

If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough

~~ Chris Dixon