[S62] Future careers of pharmacy students - Option of working for a pharmaceutical company -

Sun. Mar 31, 2024 1:15 PM - 3:15 PM [Room 501] Conference Center 501 (5F)

Organizer: Youhei Chikazawa (MR Education & Accreditation Center of Japan)

Drug therapy is becoming more sophisticated, specialized, and individualized, and pharmacists are expected to play an increasingly important role in the medical field. The overwhelming majority of pharmacy students aim to find employment at dispensing pharmacies and drugstores. Although there is an uneven distribution of pharmacists across regions, it is predicted that the supply-demand balance of pharmacists working in clinical practice will be reversed in the future, and the diversification of future careers of pharmacy students is an urgent issue.
On the other hand, as drug discovery modalities diversify, pharmaceutical companies need people with pharmacist qualifications and specialized knowledge in pharmacy in a wide range of departments to be responsible for the value chain from drug discovery to drug development. Medical Representatives (MRs) are legally clearly positioned as those who contribute to the proper use of pharmaceuticals, and we believe that they are appropriate career paths for pharmacy students after graduation.
In this symposium, we will raise the issue of the lack of opportunities to think about future careers in pharmaceutical education, emphasize the importance of career education for pharmacy students, and propose measures to consider working in a pharmaceutical company as one of the career options in the future. The MR certification exam, which has built a history of trust for 25 years, will be positioned significantly from 2026 and the qualification to take the exam will be abolished. Discuss the possibility of the new examination system to expand the careers of pharmacy students.