Pharmaceutical medicine

Pharmaceutical medicine is the medical scientific discipline concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation, registration, monitoring and medical aspects of marketing of medicines for the benefit of patients and the health of the community.

Careers in pharmaceutical medicine are offered by three main types of employer: pharmaceutical companies, independent research organisations dedicated to the development of new medicines, and medicine regulatory agencies. A pharmaceutical physician may be responsible, with their team, for the clinical development for one or more compounds. Development programmes must evaluate the risk–benefit ratio for a product, which can be a major challenge in a discipline which is always working on the frontiers of science.

Pharmaceutical medicine has been recognised as a full specialty since 2002, with over 1,400 physicians working in the discipline. Developing new medicines and making them available for patients is an international endeavour, and pharmaceutical medicine is a global discipline, demanding good communication with other pharmaceutical specialists, companies and regulatory bodies across the world. Pharmaceutical physicians work within legal and regulatory frameworks, and within ethical and professional codes of medical practice and governance.

Resources

Related RCP publications

Consultant physicians working with patients, fourth edition (2008)

Prescribing of costly medicine (2000)

Innovating for health: patients, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS (2009)

Specialty training

For information about specialty training in pharmaceutical medicine, go to the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Postgraduate Training Board (JRCPTB) website:

·          www.jrcptb.org.uk

Specialist societies

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine - www.fpm.org.uk

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain - www.rpsgb.org.uk

Pharmaceutical medicine is the medical scientific discipline concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation, registration, monitoring and medical aspects of marketing of medicines for the benefit of patients and the health of the community.

Careers in pharmaceutical medicine are offered by three main types of employer: pharmaceutical companies, independent research organisations dedicated to the development of new medicines, and medicine regulatory agencies. A pharmaceutical physician may be responsible, with their team, for the clinical development for one or more compounds. Development programmes must evaluate the risk–benefit ratio for a product, which can be a major challenge in a discipline which is always working on the frontiers of science.

Pharmaceutical medicine has been recognised as a full specialty since 2002, with over 1,400 physicians working in the discipline. Developing new medicines and making them available for patients is an international endeavour, and pharmaceutical medicine is a global discipline, demanding good communication with other pharmaceutical specialists, companies and regulatory bodies across the world. Pharmaceutical physicians work within legal and regulatory frameworks, and within ethical and professional codes of medical practice and governance.

Resources

Related RCP publications

Consultant physicians working with patients, fourth edition (2008)

Prescribing of costly medicine (2000)

Innovating for health: patients, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS (2009)

Specialty training

For information about specialty training in pharmaceutical medicine, go to the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Postgraduate Training Board (JRCPTB) website:

• www.jrcptb.org.uk

Specialist societies

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine - www.fpm.org.uk

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain - www.rpsgb.org.uk

Patient information websites

Drugwatch www.drugwatch.com

Patient information websites

Drugwatch www.drugwatch.com