Pharmacists or Chemists?

Hello everyone, I am again raising an issue that haunts the mind of new budding pharmacists. Just read an advertisement by a leading pharmaceutical company and the requirements mentioned in the educational qualifications again turned my hopes down that some company will publish advertisements which require pharmacists and not chemists.

I don't want to blame one single company, in these days this was most probably the third or fourth such ad which I went through and was really doubtful about my career status after my passing out. With whom am I going to compete, Pharmacists, Chemists or both? Really this is not a good sign at all. Sometime back I heard some top pharma regulatory person, that "We do not need to have pharmacists, organic/synthetic chemists can do!" Is it so, then why to run pharmacy institutes why was that person sitting in a chair belonging to a representative of pharmacy field?

Earlier the area was limited only for marketing where non pharma people were hired as MR, the trend was still ok when they entered the QA/QC labs the takeover continued and they grabbed the synthesis and research labs now even the production, R&D, management everywhere you will find the requirements mentioned by the company as MSc PhD, MSc with/without experience, BSc with experience as the qualifications. So has the pharma field being eliminated from the employment scenario? Are there no jobs for pharmacists? Why the company requires chemists and not pharmacists? Is it the policy of pharma companies or do they think that pharmacy education is not sufficient for the entry to industry? Is it not a blow to the educational system too which claims of creating knowledgeable students but fails to employ them, or fails to satisfy the proper quality of output needed?

Questions and questions but really no answers. The MSc people or other than pharma background people have started grasping power in the pharma field and prepared a lobby of their own. (I am not blaming the MSc’s please pardon if I hurt your sentiments).

The field is vast and requires expertise from all fields including Chemistry, Medicine, Pharmacology, Mathematics & Statistics, Management, Information technology…. and many more. But does this employ the fact that the main person i.e the pharmacist goes missing from the field?

I know this is an opportunity to realize the need of the hour that the pharmacist has to get more competent and become expert in these fields so as to remain in the hunt, but is the not the alarm that should blow off the ear-drum of those dumb pharma people on top sitting idle doing just nothing for the betterment of the grassroots from where they belong?

Well I know this my own opinion and others will have some different view. I don’t expect all others may be thinking in this way but yes I would definitely like your opinions in this regard, so I wish to start the discussion here and your opinions are invited.