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· Thalidomide
· Retention fee
· Community pharmacy
· Which? report
· CPD
· Ramipril
· Canesten Combi
· Careers supplement
· The Journal
Letters to the Editor
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Careers supplement
Industrial pharmacy — what’s that?
From Dr R. J. Harman, MRPharmS
Once again, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has disregarded pharmacists
working in the pharmaceutical industry. In the PJ (21 February, p229),
we were promised a “Careers
supplement produced by the Society
and The Independent” showing that “the promotion of careers
in pharmacy is an important part of the Society’s professional
development and leadership role”.
Yet only two brief references were made to a career in industrial pharmacy,
and one of those was highly oblique. There was reference to the numbers
of pharmacists working in the industry, and the President mentioned “pharmacists
working at the cutting edge of medical science, helping us bring new,
life-saving treatments and better ways of using them”. Is the term “industrial
pharmacist” so difficult to say? There can hardly have been a constraint
on space: text occupied just three pages of the 16-page supplement. And,
as a vehicle for promoting careers in pharmacy, how can having 12 pages
of advertisements be considered professional and enticing to potential
university applicants? It might pay for the supplement but it will not
attract uncommitted readers. What a wasted opportunity! I wonder how
much it cost us as members?
Robin J. Harman
Farnham, Surrey
Why nothing about opportunities in industry?
From Dr J. C. Gilbert, MRPharmS
Upon opening my copy of The Independent on Monday 23 February, I was
intrigued to find a supplement produced in association with the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society entitled “Pharmacy”. The supplement
appeared to be a promotion for the profession of pharmacy — a laudable
objective. However, upon reading the document from cover to cover I found
nothing describing the opportunities offered within the pharmaceutical
industry. Instead the supplement concentrated on community and hospital
pharmacy. Nor was any reference made to the research and teaching opportunities
offered by academia.
Frankly, this polarisation within the Society makes me question why I
bother to pay my retention fees. I would have expected that a supplement
about our profession in a national daily newspaper would have described
the depth of opportunities offered — surely one of our major selling
points.
The Society may be surprised to learn that a significant body of pharmacists
find industry provides an exciting and worthwhile career. It would be
sensible to voice this opinion in future supplements.
Julian Gilbert
Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire
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BEVERLEY PARKIN, director of public affairs and communications, Royal
Pharmaceutical Society, replies:
The pharmacy supplement published
with The Independent on 23 February was circulated to the paper’s
readership of over 200,000, providing an excellent opportunity to promote
both
pharmacy as a career and the expanding role of the profession.
Members will have received a copy of the supplement with last week’s
PJ and will have been able to see for themselves that it did, in fact,
contain several
references to pharmacists working in industry as well as to a range of other
sectors that provide career opportunities for pharmacists.
I should point out that, while the Society was invited to contribute a
comment by the President and the text of an advertorial, the decision on
content and
focus of the publication was, as is usual, for the editor to make. The
collaboration with The Independent did not involve any payment by the Society. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal