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How I learned to stop worrying and love big pharma

Richard Grant - Strategic Content Specialist          August 13, 2021

In the UK, around six in every hundred newly minted PhDs are destined for a permanent academic role—and maybe one will make it to Professor. Twenty will find a research job outside academia. The rest? According to the Royal Society, they find "Careers outside science".

Chances are, you’re not going to ‘make it’.

I didn’t.

Despite having a tremendous time postdoc-ing in various high-powered labs around the world, I knew the lifestyle was ultimately unsustainable. And one day the axe just fell—a grant didn’t get renewed and I had to decide between trying to find another postdoc, potentially in yet another country, or taking the opportunity to jump ship entirely.

I had already made a bit of a name for myself as a communicator. For a couple of years I’d been writing a blog on the University’s website, a territory very much owned by artist types.

When I started, one of them commented, "Wow, a scientist who can write!".

Not doing bench science for a living didn’t seem quite so scary. More concerning was the question of what, actually, could I do? How could I use my communication skills for profit as well as for fun? Would I have to freelance? Was publishing the only option? Would I miss doing experiments?

I had heard of medcomms—a friend had done a postdoc and then run away to join a medical communications agency—but that was all I knew. The MRC gave us ‘communications training’, but that was more about telling the public about the research you were doing and why it was important. Beyond that, we were told nothing.

So I left the lab and joined a publishing company for a bit. I did some science journalism, and looked more deeply into Med Comms. I had more questions: What would I be expected to do? Would I get bored? What the hell is a timesheet anyway?

And yes, when I joined Remedica I had some culture shock. I was completely out of my depth at my first team meeting—not just the acronyms but the sentence structures were completely alien. But I threw myself into the projects, picking up the lingo and the processes as I went … and that was nearly 8 years ago.

There are new challenges every day. There are frustrations for sure, but there are triumphs too—and the knowledge that, unlike research, what you get out is directly proportional to what you put in.

Working closely with our clients I see that what I do, day in day out, makes a difference to patients’ lives.

I never had that feeling when doing bench science—in academia or industry.

Occasionally I miss doing experiments, but not for long. The lab can be a comfort blanket: familiar, but ultimately suffocating.

Moving into Med Comms was definitely the right choice.

At Remedica we understand Medical Affairs. We are committed to helping our pharma clients implement strategic communications from late clinical development through lifecycleunderpinning their commitment to healthcare professionals by providing credible, trustworthy communication programs. Contact Alejandro Potes for a consultation today at Alejandro.Potes@remedica.com

 

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