Bachelor degree salary

Objectives. The pharmaceutical industry traditionally hires pharmacists with bachelor of science (BS) degrees for formulation development, manufacturing, etc. As the BS in pharmacy degree is phased out, it is important to know if manufacturers still need employees with the expertise that the BS degree provides.

Methods. Data were collected from a survey asking how pharmaceutical manufacturing scientists felt about employing persons with a BS in pharmacy, what persons with BS in pharmacy degrees currently do for their company, and what courses would be of value in a degree designed for industry employment. Demographic data were also collected.

Results. Survey packets were mailed to 1,000 AAPS members and 255 surveys were returned. Eighty-three percent of respondents agreed that pharmacy schools should offer BS degrees specific for industry employment. Courses in drug development and organic chemistry were the most desirable, while radiopharmaceuticals and immunology were the least favored. Respondents indicated that they would like to hire 826 persons with BS in pharmacy degrees within the next 5 years, creating a potential job market for individuals with a BS in the pharmaceutical sciences.

Conclusions. There is a need to provide the pharmaceutical industry with qualified persons trained at the BS level of pharmaceutical education. Educational programs of this type should be continued or developed.

Keywords: BS in pharmaceutical sciences, industry employment, pharmaceutical education

INTRODUCTION

As colleges of pharmacy complete the move to the clinically focused Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree as the sole professional entry-level degree, fewer individuals will have education at the Bachelor of Science (BS) level in the basic pharmaceutical sciences. The BS degree will no longer provide the education necessary to become a licensed pharmacist. Thus, a bachelor's degree in pharmaceutical sciences, focused on basic pharmaceutical sciences, provides the education necessary for possible employment with pharmaceutical companies or graduate school, but not for registration as a pharmacist. Pharmaceutical sciences are defined as pharmacology/toxicology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmaceutics. As early as 1998, the shift to the clinically based curriculum was leading to a decrease in the number of individuals holding a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy in the pharmaceutical industry. That year, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Salary and Employment Status Survey indicated a greater than 27% decrease in the number of individuals in the industry holding a BS degree in pharmacy.1

Breimer2 stated that pharmaceutical companies are major clients of pharmacy schools and that it is a challenge of this "labor market to know which types of competencies and skills graduates now need." In addition, as the industry changes, academia must change to meet new needs.2 Mooney recommends a partnership between industry, academia, and government as he claims there is a shortfall between output from universities and demand by the pharmaceutical and health care industries for science and engineering graduates.3 Further, pharmacy sales and marketing executives reported increasing difficulty in recruitment from 1989 to 1994. Pharmaceutical companies are finding themselves without the talented individuals necessary to complete the tasks at hand.4,5 The 6-year time commitment for PharmD programs(2 years in pre-pharmacy and 4 years in professional study) resulted in fewer individuals seeking graduate education.6,7 Thus, it has become more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to hire qualified individuals as there are fewer persons with BS degrees as well as fewer pharmacy graduates continuing their education for graduate degrees.

Research applications in the sciences, along with clinical research, are the major components of drug discovery and development. These are the basic tenants of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps individuals trained at the BS level in pharmaceutical sciences could be employed in the pharmaceutical industry or be encouraged to continue their education for a career in pharmaceutical research. In 1991/92, the Argus Commission was requested by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to consider the pharmaceutical industry/academic pharmacy interface. This Commission's recommendations included that data should be collected concerning the needs of the industry and career opportunities, and then distributed to members.8 Thus, this survey of the pharmaceutical industry was undertaken to help evaluate the current function, need for and training desired of individuals at colleges of pharmacy in pharmaceutical sciences programs.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate pharmaceutical manufacturers' need for employees with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmaceutical sciences that does not lead to licensure as a pharmacist. Three research questions were proposed: (1) To what degree do pharmaceutical scientists feel that persons with a BS in pharmaceutical sciences could contribute to the pharmaceutical industry? (2) How many of these persons are currently employed and what functions do they perform? and (3) what type of coursework should a BS curriculum include?

METHODS

A self-administered mailed survey instrument consisting of 3 sections was designed using information gathered by a Midwestern College of Pharmacy Taskforce that explored the feasibility of the BS degree in pharmaceutical sciences that would not lead to licensure (Appendix 1). This taskforce gathered information on current hiring practices in industry1 as well as curricula from colleges of pharmacy that offer a 4-year BS degree in pharmaceutical sciences. The instrument was pre-tested on 10 pharmacy faculty members, one of whom was previously employed in industry, for face and content validity. In addition, AAPS and Ohio Northern University's institutional review board reviewed and approved the instrument.

The first section of the survey consisted of 10 items used to ascertain if the BS in pharmaceutical science degree would be valuable to industry. These 10 items were measured using a 5-point Likert scale on which "1" equaled "strongly disagree" and "5" equaled "strongly agree." The second section of the questionnaire included demographic information about respondents and requested information regarding the number of persons with BS degrees in pharmacy employed in their specific department, functions of those persons, and the intent to hire more persons with BS degrees in pharmacy. The third portion asked respondents to indicate the importance of including various courses in a BS curriculum for pharmaceutical sciences. This section was measured with a Likert scale similar to the one used in the first section.

A survey packet was mailed in August 2001 to 1,000 randomly selected members of the AAPS who were not currently employed in academia or government agencies. The packet consisted of a cover letter, a tea bag as an incentive, a postage-paid self-addressed return envelope, and the questionnaire. The cover letter explained the difference between a PharmD degree, the current BS degree that can lead to licensure, and the BS in pharmaceutical sciences that could lead to employment in industry but not to licensure. After 6 weeks, a second packet was mailed to non-respondents.

Data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 11.0) computer software.9 Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the Likert scales indicating the desirability of the BS degree and the importance of coursework as well as demographic data. Analysis of variance tests were used to identify differences between groups of respondents. Initially, respondents identified themselves as working in one of 11 different fields identified by the AAPS.1 These 11 groups were collapsed into 4 groups in order to perform analysis of variance. Group 1 consisted of biopharmaceutics and pharmaceutics/pharmacy, group 2 consisted of clinical pharmacology, clinical pharmacy, and pharmacokinetics, group 3 consisted of medicinal chemistry, and group 4 consisted of other areas (pharmacy administration, regulatory affairs, analytical chemistry, packaging technology, and several others). Differences between groups were identified by using the Bonferoni post hoc test. In addition, response bias was evaluated by comparing early respenders to late responders in order to identify any differences. Alpha was set at 0.05.

RESULTS