Two Months Into Clinical Development – Reflections on the Transition to Industry

Pallavi Pillai is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist who transitioned approximately two months ago to a large, global pharmaceutical company as a Clinical Director, Oncology.

Her medical training was completed in India and the United Kingdom, pediatric residency in Brooklyn and hematology/oncology fellowship at NYU.  She transitioned to an academic career where she was involved in clinical research as a Principal Investigator (PI) for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and other industry-sponsored, as well as, academic clinical trials. 

After 5 years in academic medicine, Pallavi knew that pursuing meaningful clinical research was where her true passion lay, especially as oncology was undergoing its “second wave – or post chemotherapy wave” with multiple novel therapeutics being actively explored. Having been a PI, she had developed a growing understanding of the work behind clinical trials and knew she enjoyed it immensely, which made her want to explore further options in the field of cancer clinical trial development.  She had experienced the pharmaceutical industry from the academic side and was interested in exploring the career prospects from the sponsor (industry) side. As she researched details of the pharmaceutical industry, she realized that it provided her a wealth of opportunity to pursue her goal of developing clinical trials for novel therapeutics, which would impact a much larger segment of patients worldwide. 

Her experience in making the transition including doing an “intensive search” that took approximately 4 months, with “many” applications that gave rise to five interviews.  She procured two job offers before deciding on the current company (and likely would have received another couple of offers had the companies moved more quickly!). 

Her advice to those looking to make the transition includes:

“pharma means a lot of things to different people; speak to many people working in industry before deciding to move” and “Make sure you are truly ready to move on from full time patient care and really be clear with yourself about what you want” 

Regarding her transition, the biggest adjustment was being a learner again.  “Everyone tells you to anticipate that, but it really hits you when you start.   You are a member of a multi-functional system with many parts.  You have to go back to the medical student mentality of being open to learning from many different people.”

Several observations in the two months in her new role include:

• Virtual work has been something to get used to, but provides an abundance of flexibility.  There are deadlines, of course, but there is flexibility of when to do the work – whether it be at night, or working around a doctor’s appointment; the ability to discipline one’s self has been an important skill.  
• Pharma has opened her world to what is occurring in medicine on a global basis.  “Israel, South Africa, UK…”. She has been able to meet people from functions that she did not even know existed such as, epidemiology, data management, quality and real-world evidence. “It is fascinating to understand what these functions do”.

For those physicians interested in making the transition, Pallavi reflected on the backgrounds of the many physicians she has encountered in pharma thus far…

“People who did not complete residencies, trained in other countries, general practice, pediatrics – people from every background of medicine – there is not just one route to pharma.”

Ready to make a career transition to pharma/biotech… want to explore a way to use your medical training and knowledge in a fulfilling way without nights and weekends call or charting. Watch this webinar on Getting Past the Three Major Hurdles to a Career in the Pharma Industry HERE