Support functions
As with all large organisations, pharmaceutical companies need an infrastructure to run them.
Within the pharmaceutical industry there are many people who are there to support the work of the scientists and manufacturers.
For example:
- Legal experts carry out various important roles. These include ensuring that appropriate patents are taken out for the structure and synthesis of specific molecules as well as generating contracts for suppliers. Please see the Patenting page for more information on this role in industry.
- Statisticians are involved at all stages, from ensuring that the animal studies will produce valid results, to monitoring process controls. For more information, please visit the Statisticians page.
- Regulatory affairs pull together all the information that is needed for a medicine to be approved for marketing. For more information, please see the Regulatory Affairs page.
In addition to these, every large company needs departments such as Human Resources, Training & Development, IT and Finance.
Finance
To work in finance you need an analytical mind, an eye for detail and the ability to work with large amounts of information and data.
Human resources
A human resources (HR) career in a large pharmaceutical company can be a wonderful journey into a number of different roles and business areas each with similar yet distinct needs.
Information technology (IT)
Information technology (IT) gives our work a flexibility that would have been unimaginable a few years ago and access to much more information.
Training and development
One of the best ways to improve a business is to raise the capability of its people. And there's no better means of achieving this than through training and development.