Job and Career Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical Sector

The pharmaceutical field offers a wealth of job and career opportunities for talented young graduates with a sound background in life sciences and various other academic disciplines. Because these employment options are often insufficiently known to young academics, the aim of this chapter is to give them a better idea about the many job opportunities and presents the entire drug life cycle. The first part of the chapter includes a general description of the drug life cycle and what is understood by ‘the pharmaceutical sector’. The core of the chapter gives an overview of job opportunities that either are specific to the different parts of the drug life cycle or are important as support functions over the entire life cycle. It also includes a section on career perspectives and training opportunities. The last part of the chapter focuses on important employability elements, as well as some practical do’s and don’ts for effective job application

Modelling molecule-surface interactions-an automated quantum-classical approach using a genetic algorithm

We present an automated and efficient method to develop force fields for molecule-surface interactions. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to parameterise a classical force field so that the classical adsorption energy landscape of a molecule on a surface matches the corresponding landscape from density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The procedure performs a sophisticated search in the parameter phase space and converges very quickly. The method is capable of fitting a significant number of structures and corresponding adsorption energies. Water on a ZnO(0001) surface was chosen as a benchmark system but the method is implemented in a flexible way and can be applied to any system of interest. In the present case, pairwise Lennard Jones (LJ) and Coulomb potentials are used to describe the molecule-surface interactions. In the course of the fitting procedure, the LJ parameters are refined in order to reproduce the adsorption energy landscape. The classical model is capable of describing a wide range of energies, which is essential for a realistic description of a fluid-solid interface

Molecular misreading: The occurrence of frameshift proteins in different diseases

Neuronal homoeostasis requires a constant balance between biosynthetic and catabolic processes. Eukaryotic cells primarily use two distinct mechanisms for degradation: the proteasome and autophagy of aggregates by the lysosomes. We focused on the UPS (ubiquitin-proteasome system). As a result of molecular misreading, misframed UBB (ubiquitin B) (UBB+1) is generated. UBB+1 accumulates in the neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in all patients with AD (Alzheimer's disease) and in the neuronal and glial hallmarks of other tauopathies and in polyglutamine diseases such as Huntington's disease. UBB+1 is not present in synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease. We showed that UBB+1 causes UPS dysfunction, aggregation and apoptotic cell death. UBB+1 is also present in non-neurological cells, hepatocytes of the diseased liver and in muscles during inclusion body myositis. Other frequently occurring (age-related) diseases such as Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus are currently under investigation. These findings point to the importance of the UPS in diseases and open new avenues for target identification of the main players of the UPS. Treatment of these diseases with tools (e.g. viral RNA interference constructs) to intervene with specific targets is the next step

Protein markers for insulin-producing beta cells with higher glucose sensitivity

Background and Methodology: Pancreatic beta cells show intercellular differences in their metabolic glucose sensitivity and associated activation of insulin production. To identify protein markers for these variations in functional glucose sensitivity, rat beta cell subpopulations were flow-sorted for their level of glucose-induced NAD(P) H and their proteomes were quantified by label-free data independent alternate scanning LC-MS. Beta cell-selective proteins were also identified through comparison with rat brain and liver tissue and with purified islet alpha cells, after geometrical normalization using 6 stably expressed reference proteins. Principal Findings: All tissues combined, 943 proteins were reliably quantified. In beta cells, 93 out of 467 quantifiable proteins were uniquely detected in this cell type; several other proteins presented a high molar abundance in beta cells. The proteome of the beta cell subpopulation with high metabolic and biosynthetic responsiveness to 7.5 mM glucose was characterized by (i) an on average 50% higher expression of protein biosynthesis regulators such as 40S and 60S ribosomal constituents, NADPH-dependent protein folding factors and translation elongation factors; (ii) 50% higher levels of enzymes involved in glycolysis and in the cytosolic arm of the malate/aspartate-NADH-shuttle. No differences were noticed in mitochondrial enzymes of the Krebs cycle, beta-oxidation or respiratory chain. Conclusions: Quantification of subtle variations in the proteome using alternate scanning LC-MS shows that beta cell metabolic glucose responsiveness is mostly associated with higher levels of glycolytic but not of mitochondrial enzymes

A Study on How Industrial Pharmacists Rank Competences for Pharmacy Practice: A Case for Industrial Pharmacy Specialization

This paper looks at the way in which industrial pharmacists rank the fundamental competences for pharmacy practice. European industrial pharmacists (n = 135) ranked 68 competences for practice, arranged into 13 clusters of two types (personal and patient care). Results show that, compared to community pharmacists (n = 258), industrial pharmacists rank competences centering on research, development and production of drugs higher, and those centering on patient care lower. Competences centering on values, communication skills, etc. were ranked similarly by the two groups of pharmacists. These results are discussed in the light of the existence or not of an “industrial pharmacy” specialization

The Second Round of the PHAR-QA Survey of Competences for Pharmacy Practice

This paper presents the results of the second European Delphi round on the ranking of competences for pharmacy practice and compares these data to those of the first round already published. A comparison of the numbers of respondents, distribution by age group, country of residence, etc., shows that whilst the student population of respondents changed from Round 1 to 2, the populations of the professional groups (community, hospital and industrial pharmacists, pharmacists in other occupations and academics) were more stable. Results are given for the consensus of ranking and the scores of ranking of 50 competences for pharmacy practice. This two-stage, large-scale Delphi process harmonized and validated the Quality Assurance in European Pharmacy Education and Training (PHAR-QA) framework and ensured the adoption by the pharmacy profession of a framework proposed by the academic pharmacy community. The process of evaluation and validation of ranking of competences by the pharmacy profession is now complete, and the PHAR-QA consortium will now put forward a definitive PHAR-QA framework of competences for pharmacy practice.Peer reviewe

A European competence framework for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology

Project Report: The PHAR-IN ("Competences for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology") looked at whether there is a difference in how industrial employees and academics rank competences for practice in the biotechnological industry. A small expert panel consisting of the authors of this paper produced a biotechnology competence framework by drawing up an initial list of competences then ranking them in importance using a three-stage Delphi process. The framework was next evaluated and validated by a large expert panel of academics (n = 37) and industrial employees (n = 154). Results show that priorities for industrial employees and academics were similar. The competences for biotechnology practice that received the highest scores were mainly in: . "Research and Development", . "Upstream" and "Downstream" Processing', " . "Product development and formulation", " . "Aseptic processing", ."Analytical methodology", . "Product stability", and . "Regulation". The main area of disagreement was in the category "Ethics and drug safety" where academics ranked competences higher than did industrial employees

The PHAR-QA Project: Competency Framework for Pharmacy Practice—First Steps, the Results of the European Network Delphi Round 1

PHAR-QA, funded by the European Commission, is producing a framework of competences for pharmacy practice. The framework is in line with the EU directive on sectoral professions and takes into account the diversity of the pharmacy profession and the on-going changes in healthcare systems (with an increasingly important role for pharmacists), and in the pharmaceutical industry. PHAR-QA is asking academia, students and practicing pharmacists to rank competences required for practice. The results show that competences in the areas of “drug interactions”, “need for drug treatment” and “provision of information and service” were ranked highest whereas those in the areas of “ability to design and conduct research” and “development and production of medicines” were ranked lower. For the latter two categories, industrial pharmacists ranked them higher than did the other five groups.Peer reviewe

Effecten van sociale afstand op zelfstandig wonende kwetsbare ouderen

Global Challenges (FSW

How Do European Pharmacy Students Rank Competences for Practice?

European students (n = 370), academics (n = 241) and community pharmacists (n = 258) ranked 13 clusters of 68 personal and patient care competences for pharmacy practice. The results show that ranking profiles for all three groups as a rule were similar. This was especially true of the comparison between students and community pharmacists concerning patient care competences suggesting that students have a good idea of their future profession. A comparison of first and fifth (final) year students shows more awareness of patient care competences in the final year students. Differences do exist, however, between students and community pharmacists. Students—like academics—ranked competences concerned with industrial pharmacy and the quality aspects of preparing drugs, as well as scientific fundamentals of pharmacy practice, well above the rankings of community pharmacists. There were no substantial differences amongst rankings of students from different countries although some countries have more “medicinal” courses than others. This is to our knowledge the first paper to look at how, within a healthcare sectoral profession such as pharmacy, the views on the relative importance of different competences for practice of those educating the future professionals and their students, are compared to the views of working professionals.Peer reviewe