The HRchive CONTENTS

Love 'n Hate Index   >> Issue 1 - SREs     >> Issue 2 - Indies     >> Issue 3 - Clientside Res     >> Issue 4 - MD / Agency Boss     >> Issue 5 - MR Software Sales     >> Issue 6 - Omnibus Researchers     >> Issue 7 - TV Researcher     >> Issue 8 - MR Recruiters     >> Issue 9 - Office Party Planner     >> Issue 10 - MR Marketing Mgrs     >> Issue 11 - Associate Directors     >> Issue 12 - Field Mgrs     >> Issue 13 - JRE & Grad Trainee     >> Issue 14 - Head of Research     >> Issue 15 - Viewing Facility Mgrs     >> Issue 17 - Tel Interviewers     >> Issue 18 - Aussie Researchers     >> Issue 19 - Personnel Mgrs

So, what do I love about being a pharmaceutical market researcher?

I should probably first explain that I only work with POMs (Prescription Only Medicines) - also known as 'ethical pharmaceuticals' for reasons that have never been fully explained to me, and I work on the client side.

• It's such a wonderfully complex market ? forget about half of what you learnt in your marketing course at uni and start thinking laterally! The person who uses your product rarely has much say in choosing it, and certainly doesn?t browse any beautiful displays in the pharmacy to make a decision. We are not allowed to advertise our product to them beyond maybe encouraging them to see their GP about a particular condition and then keep our fingers crossed they will end up with our product. The person who decides what product to use ? usually the physician - is not really the person who is paying. The payor ? the government through various parts of the NHS - has a myriad of more or less effective ways of controlling and directing what products are being used for which conditions or patients.

• The value of market research is well recognised - you get decent budgets for ad hoc research and you have gigabytes (literally!) of market data to play with. If you can demonstrate an aptitude for turning surveys and data analysis into meaningful insight and strategic recommendations you get even more decent budgets to play with. The researchers are also seen as integral members of the product teams - not just geeks sitting in front of computers producing charts. I present to senior managers, I go to global product team meetings, I am asked for my opinion and recommendations rather than "what are the numbers". I feel valued.

• I get to learn about all my real and imagined medical issues - what painkillers to use for what, how to recognise if I?m developing anxiety disorder and how to behave in front of my GP to see me as a patient worth taking seriously. On a slightly more serious note it has been really useful to learn more about what treatment options are available for various conditions - as a 'normal consumer' you hardly even get to see the tip of the iceberg, and you sort of assume that your GP will go out of his way to offer you anything that is available. Unfortunately rarely the case.

• There are so many options to move on within the company if I should ever tire of market research - I have colleagues who have moved into sales, to product management, to health outcomes research (eg how does a medication improve a patient's quality of life or life expectancy, and how do you put a monetary value on that?), to strategic development ... Or I could stay in market research and move to our head office, or maybe to another country somewhere ...

And then of course there are the working hours - 9 to 5, regulated, predictable (she says, glancing briefly at her watch - 11.30pm). OK, so maybe not quite like that but I love it anyway :-)

We all know that saying you're a market researcher at a party is the social kiss of death. And the usual follow up is 'So, you're one of those people who stand in the street with a clipboard?' - after which the questioner usually departs to find someone with a more glamorous occupation.

The first thing anyone says when you tell them you?re a pharma- ceutical researcher is 'Can you get me some Viagra then.' (No) - or 'do you wear a white coat?' (No again). And more recently, being a pharma researcher is regarded by liberal friends as colluding with shameless fat cat exploiters of third world poverty and human misery. Being a pharma researcher means that you develop a knowledge of all kinds of unpleasant conditions and diseases and this can turn even the most well balanced person into a raving hypochondriac. And my partner has never again asked the innocent question 'What did you do at the office today?' since my description of a meeting spent debating the validity of data on the average rectum size of the GB population.

But the thing which annoys me most about pharma research is the cushy second income it provides for doctors. Talk about Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss et al not getting out of bed for less than 10 grand - these guys don't fill in a 2 page self-completion questionnaire for much less. And while nobody begrudges rewarding people for their valuable time, I can't help feeling that the rewards have grown out of all proportion for the task. What other frustrations dog the life of a pharma researcher? Well, because of the very nature of the industry it is inevitable that at times projects move very slowly and are wrapped in a mass of red tape, guidelines, directives, consultations etc. Product Managers who say, 'Let's get the sales reps to check this out' instead of commissioning proper research. The lack of knowledge or interest about our end users - consumers are like herds of wildebeest to pharma companies - the attitude is: 'we know they must be out there in large numbers, but they're rarely sighted and to be honest you wouldn't want to meet them'.

My friends in other areas of research tend to see pharma as less mainstream and less fun - we are the geeks and swots of the research world. Jamie Oliver will never star in one of our ads and I never have any goodies 'left over' from product testing - or certainly not the kind you'd want to take home anyway.

Will I stay in pharma research? Given the amount of mergers and acquisitions in this area, one day we'll all probably end up working for AstraBayerBoehringerGlaxoLilly MerckNovartisPharmaciaPfizerSquibb WyethZeneca Inc. but if there is life after pharma research, I'll be happy to see it. I'm a pharma researcher ... get me out of here!