I received an MPharm degree from the University of Bath, went on to complete pre registration training and became a fully qualified pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain. Following this, I worked in the NHS as a
hospital pharmacist.
As part of my degree, we covered large amounts of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and biopharmaceutics, in addition to a wide range of more general clinical science. In my day-to-day role in the NHS, there was limited opportunity to use this information, which felt like a waste as I enjoy the more specialist aspects. Medical communications offered a way to use more of my degree while still providing patient benefit.
After looking into a few roles, it appeared that a PhD was a given (if not strongly preferred) for a writer’s role. For this reason, I initially applied for a Project Assistant position, to allow me to break into the industry as part of the project management stream. However, during my interview, the team felt that I would be better suited to writing, and I went on to complete the associated assessments and was offered a writing role.
Oxford PharmaGenesis is the first medical communication agency that I have worked at, though I have heard from several colleagues who have spent time elsewhere that this is a great agency to work for.
My current role allows me to utilize a much wider range of learning from my degree versus my previous position, while still being able to provide patient benefit. My current role is similar to my prior NHS position in terms of being fast-paced and requiring working as part of a large team to deliver on complex tasks, which is my preference.
I particularly enjoy knowing that every publication we work on is building evidence and improving clinical care for patients, especially those with very rare diseases.
Sometimes timelines can be challenging, due to congress deadlines or client delays, though our team pulls together to manage workloads and ensure projects are delivered on time.
