“MA and marketer need experience, analytic mind, acumen”

Pharmacy school graduates’ tips for getting a job at pharmaceutical companies

PPL 6th Online Pharmaceutical Company Job Recruitment Seminar

“For a Market Access (MA) specialist, the most important skill set is to analyze the clinical trial data and to recreate them as a valuable message.

 

They need to find any missing data required for pharmaceutical reimbursement review, and prepare the evidences prior to the review, if need be.

 

If you are a pharmacy school student and want to become a MA specialist, you need to acquire rich experience and knowledge.” That was an advice from MA Director Lim Kyungwha at Jansen Korea to the students in college of pharmacy, who are looking into getting a job in the MA sector.

 

The Pharmaceutical Marketing Professional Leaders (PPL) convened a sixth pharmaceutical industry seminar on Sept.

 

5 with the theme of ‘the Wave of Pharmaceuticals.’ At the seminar, Director Lim gave a lecture on the current industry status, and the importance of MA specialists.

 

MA Director Lim Kyungwha at Jansen Korea

Until few years back, MA specialists played a role of applying for reimbursement listing after a new drug approval.

 

But things have changed—now the MA specialists participate from the clinical designing stage.

 

In the initial clinical stage, new drug development and market access departments come together and talk about strategy as an ‘integrated MA’ to ponder on what the government would stress on when listing for reimbursement, areas to better reflect new drug’s value than other global alternative options, and which clinical outcomes would win the healthcare reimbursement.

 

Director Lim said, “Nowadays, pharmaceutical companies do not consider MA as a single department, but rather treats it like a strategy.

 

It’s because MA can intervene from the initial clinical stage to accelerate the reimbursement listing procedure and affect the entire drug approval and market access strategy.” In other words, MA is a key player in building a strategy for a new drug seeking for a proper acknowledgement of its value and to enter the market fast.

 

Specialized and diversified MA specialist also has to serve two roles of communicating and negotiating with the government.

 

So what kind of skill sets should a MA specialist have?

 

Director Lim said, “MA specialist has to understand clinical data and capture the value in them.

 

The reason why most of the companies hire master’s degree or doctorate degree graduates majoring in public health or social pharmacy is because we need people, who have wide experience and knowledge, skill to analyze finance and market, and understanding of R&D.” “Understanding the general pharmaceutical industry is crucial, as necessary strategy can be designed by understanding of the business.

 

I also finished my MBA, but I went back to school to study social pharmacy,“ Director Lim added.

 

Market access competency

She encouraged the students and said, “Students who want to become a MA specialist need to acquire abundant knowledge, experience and strategic mind.

 

As the industry is short of well-experienced MA specialists, the companies time to time hire entry level applicants, fresh out of university or graduate school, with potential seen during an interview.” She also reiterated, “Only because you choose your career path once, does not mean you would stay on it forever.

 

Having richer experience is more important as all companies prefer people with more experience.” ’Acumen’ is critical asset for a marketer, while knowledge in pharmacology and toxicity is essential Executive Director Park Kwang-kyu at Gilead Science Liver Disease Business Department, emphasized ‘acumen’ is the most important factor in a student who dreams of being a marketer, who has to communicate with consumers in the sales department.

 

They have to be highly empathetic to grasp when to be soft or firm during a conversation.

 

Executive Director Park Kwang-kyu at Gilead Science

Executive Director Park also mentioned insight, communication and leadership are important as well.

 

He pointed out, “Even the marketers on the job struggle to distinguish ‘insight’ and ‘summary.’ Often the marketers have to deal with big data.

 

And they need to digest the vast amount of data into a concise message,” so “they should be able to say easily in a single sentence to describe ‘what the company should do’ based on those data.” “We need people who are not afraid of challenges with confidence to work well in a multinational company.

 

When it comes down to marketing, your own skill is more valuable than your degree,” he noted.

 

However, Executive Director Park said the number of marketing jobs in multinational companies is declining.

 

He said, “Two decades ago, a pharmacist-turned-marketer was treated as a specialist with expert knowledge.

 

But now we have marketers from liberal arts, biology, pharmacy and nursing background, while [work] has gotten diversified and enhanced.

 

But the company still thinks highly of pharmacy school graduates, so it would be worth it to knock on their doors.”

Senior Director Kang Byung-chul at COSMAX BIO

Senior Director Kang Byung-chul at COSMAX BIO leading both marketing and R&D departments recommended the participating students to make sure they study about pharmacology test and toxicity test before graduating to apply for a job in a pharmaceutical company.

 

Senior Director Kang highlighted, “In any department, pharmacology and toxicity are the basics.

 

And we all assume a pharmacy school graduates have full understanding of those.” The senior director did not recommend applying for the Business Development (BD) department for an entry level applicant.

 

He said, “Only after working over a decade in R&D or marketing department, you can become a fully functioning member of the BD department.

 

I would recommend transferring to BD department, after becoming a specialist in respective area for 10 years.”