Evaluating the Pharmaceutical Industry's Need for Graduates with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2003 by Broedel-Zaugg, Kimberly, Kisor, David F, Sullivan, Donald L

RESULTS

Fifteen packets were returned as undeliverable and 5 persons requested to be removed from the mailing list because they did not feel they had the knowledge base to complete the questionnaire. A total of 255 usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 25.5%. This compares favorably to a response rate of 10% in a salary survey done by the AAPS.1 Respondents can best be described as male (67.7%), not registered pharmacists (85.7%), holding a PhD (57.5%), and primarily involved in the field of pharmaceutics (36.7%). See Table 1.

Responses to the statement that scientists in industry believed that employees with a BS in pharmaceutical sciences would be valuable employees are presented in Table 2. Respondents felt most strongly that pharmacy schools should offer the BS degree to better prepare students for employment in industry (4.01 � 0.72). However, they did not think that licensure as a pharmacist was needed (1.80 � 0.76). Several differences between groups of respondents were identified. Those identifying themselves as medicinal chemists did not feel as strongly as respondents in pharmaceutics and in the "other" professions group that those with a BS in pharmacy and a PhD would have a better understanding of the drug development process than a PhD with a non-pharmacy undergraduate degree (P=0.002). Further, the medicinal chemists again differed from the pharmaceutics group by not agreeing as strongly that people with a BS in pharmacy would have a medical knowledge base that would make them more valuable to the pharmaceutical industry (P=0.013). The last difference in opinion was between those in the clinical/kinetics group and those in the "other" group. The "other" group agreed more strongly with the statement "pharmacy schools should offer BS degrees in pharmacy that prepare students for employment in industry" (P = 0.021).

In the curricula portion of the questionnaire, scientists were asked which courses would be most important in their area (see Table 3). The most important courses were identified as organic chemistry (4.46 � 0.59) and the drug development process (4.46 � 0.68), while courses in radiopharmaceuticals (3.32 � 0.82), immunology (3.48 � 0.90), and physics (3.48 � 0.89) were considered less important. Several differences occurred between the 4 groups of scientists (see Table 3). The clinical/pharmacokinetics group differed from all 3 other groups. They did not indicate as strong agreement with the need for a course about controlled release delivery systems (P

Respondents indicated that 2.4 � 6.28 (range 0-70) persons with a BS degree in pharmacy currently work in their area. In addition, they identified the following top 5 functions that these employees perform: formulation development (73 responses), regulatory affairs (58), clinical trial monitoring/supplies (32), analytical method development (29), and manufacturing (20). One hundred fourteen (44.7%) currently had no one with a BS in pharmacy degree working in their area. Further, 80 (31%) scientists indicated they would not be hiring anyone with a BS in pharmacy degree within the next 12 months. Even so, the average need was 1.67 � 1.55 (range 0-75) new employees with a BS degree in pharmacy in the next 12 months. The total need from all respondents was 215. In addition, scientists were asked how many persons with BS in pharmacy degrees their area would need in the next 5 years. Total need was 611 with an average of 3.90 � 5.55 and a range of 0-50. Forty respondents indicated they would not be hiring anyone with a BS in pharmacy in the next 5 years. In addition, 63.1% of the respondents answered that they would support having a pharmacy student in their area as a learning rotation or internship experience. Several respondents returned job descriptions with the questionnaire. Titles of positions currently filled with persons having a BS in pharmacy degree included pharmacist, research associate, product regulation manager, and scientist. These jobs had various responsibilities that involved dispensing bulk chemicals, analyzing raw materials, technical laboratory functions, data analysis, record keeping, regulatory strategies for new drug applications, and formulation. Degrees preferred for these positions were BS in pharmacy, chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biology.