Pharmaceutical

The development, production and marketing of medicinal drugs remains a lucrative process. Pleasingly, from the perspective of Irish students, there are a whole host of postgraduate courses available throughout the country that can lead to prosperous careers in the pharmaceutical industry.

For instance, DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) offers a number of courses that can set participants on a direct path into the sector.
One such programme is the MSC (Master of Science) in Pharmaceutical Validation Technology. Pharmaceutical validation is a discipline that seeks to ensure the methods used in the production of drug products are meeting all pre-determined specifications. The course is taken in a part-time capacity over the course of two years. It is open to people with an honours degree – or an equivalent qualification – in chemistry, or a related discipline. Applicants should also be employed in a relevant industrial sector.

DIT also offers an MSc in Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance which is split into two courses – Biotechnology and Regulation. This programme can be taken on either a full-time (one-year) or part-time (two-year) basis. The course aims to give students with scientific qualifications a clearer understanding of the standards and requirements set by the pharmaceutical industry – and related areas – in relation to quality assurance.

Also available at DIT is a PGDip (Postgraduate Diploma)/MSc in Pharmaceutical and Chemical Process Technology. Applicants should have an honours BSc (Bachelor of Science) in a scientific or engineering discipline – or an equivalent qualification – and be employed in a relevant sector.

These three courses can set participants on three very different career paths into the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Anne Green, course director for the MSc in Pharmaceutical Validation Technology, and the MSc in Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance, explains: ‘The (course) in Pharmaceutical Validation Technology is very much focused towards people who want to work in the area of pharmaceutical validation. From that, they can usually work in some sort of technical or engineering role, in the future. The Quality Assurance programme is typically opening career paths for people who want to work in a quality assurance, quality control or regulatory area in a pharmaceutical company. And the Process Technology is mainly for technical people who would be working in the pharmaceutical companies.’

But what skills and disciplines do these courses instil in participants, making them more desirable to top pharmaceutical firms?
Dr Green explains: ‘The students coming into the programmes would have a scientific or engineering background. Many of them have a single discipline – maybe physics, chemistry, biology, maths or computer science. These programmes are, in a way, conversion and higher programmes that give them the underpinning science that they may not have studied as an undergraduate discipline. So, for example, somebody who would have an undergraduate chemistry background would be getting biotechnology, microbiology and pharmacology skills.’

She continues: ‘We are targeting specific skills that they wouldn’t have studied at undergraduate (level) – particularly in the areas of validation, pharmaceutical technology, quality assurance, regulation, legislation and management. They’re learning how to work in teams, to think strategically, to analyse and critique things, to evaluate information, to put together reports and to give presentations – all of the sort of skills they would need in the workplace.’

Indeed, there are some postgraduate programmes which, in the process of training students in a discipline that may not account for a great number of positions within the pharmaceutical sector, will give them an opportunity to hone skills to get other jobs in the industry. For instance, AIT (Athlone Institute of Technology) offers a PGDip/MSc in Toxicology (the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms) to students with a degree in an equivalent Level 8 qualification, or an honours degree in an appropriate life science discipline.

Dr Paul Tomkins, head of AIT’s School of Science, says there is a ‘potentially relatively small’ number of pharmaceutical companies looking for people to do in-house toxicological work. More frequently, he claims, toxicologists work for CROs (Contract Research Organisations) that do work for pharmaceutical firms. However, the course still opens up potential career paths within the industry, as Dr Tomkins explains.
 â€˜Toxicology is hugely multi-disciplinary in nature,’ he says. ‘Anyone that undertakes a relatively broad toxicology programme comes out very well equipped to work in a lot of different areas. We would have had graduates from Toxicology who have ended up in microbial labs, in management positions, in Regulatory Affairs.’

The course is pursued on a full-time basis for either one year (to attain a PGDip) or 18 months (to attain an MSc). There are numerous other postgraduate options available throughout Ireland that can lead to lucrative careers in the pharmaceutical sector. Among them is the MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Science, jointly offered by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Institute of Technology, Sligo. The programme is aimed at those working in the pharmaceutical or healthcare industries who are seeking to learn more about subjects relating to industrial practice. It is a part-time course, conducted over two years, which is open to students who have obtained an honours degree – or its equivalent – in a relevant discipline. The course is delivered by distance learning, with some block attendance divided equally between the two institutions.

NUI Galway offers an MSc in Biotechnology, from which 55 per cent of graduates have gone on to work in the pharmaceutical industry. The minimum entry requirement for this course is a second class honours degree in science, or a related subject, with an appropriate background in biological sciences. It can be pursued in both a full-time (one-year) and part-time (two-year) capacity.

Those who are work in pharmaceutical production might enrol in ITT Dublin’s part time Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Production. Students gain hands-on experience through assignments undertaken in the Institute’s Pharmaceutical Education Centre. The course enables students to work in API, biopharmaceutical and finished dose manufacturing, and incorporates an industry-based work assignment.

So, there are a number of ways in which postgraduate programmes can help participants to secure employment in the pharmaceutical sector – whether it is by providing them with a qualification that relates directly to their chosen field, or by enabling them to hone skills that will make them more desirable to top firms.