Consultant physicians working with patients - Royal College of ...

2 Specialties Pharmaceutical medicineregulatory agency or in academia. Their work involvesdeveloping medicines and vaccines in almost all diseaseareas, both at home and abroad. Because of this hugediversity it is almost meaningless to produce a ‘typical’work programme or job plan for a pharmaceuticalphysician.10 Key points for commissioners1 The specialty of pharmaceutical medicine currentlyhas the eleventh highest number of trainees.2 Pharmaceutical physicians work in a very diversespecialty, researching and developing medicines inalmost all disease areas.3 Although few pharmaceutical physicians workdirectly with patients they consider their work to befor the benefit of public health first and foremost.4 Some pharmaceutical physicians are employed inthe public sector, but most are employed privatelyin companies ranging from small consultancies tomultinational companies with billions of poundsof annual turnover.5 Pharmaceutical physicians are the providers ofinformation and data to patients undergoing trials,via the investigator.6 Pharmaceutical physicians almost always work inmultidisciplinary teams, with doctors of allspecialties, trials investigators and supportiveclinical staff.7 Pharmaceutical medicine is a global specialtyand therefore many pharmaceutical physicianswho have qualified in the UK now workoverseas.8 Pharmaceutical medicine is a very broad-basedspecialty and therefore welcomes doctors from abroad spectrum of specialties including surgeryand paediatrics.9 Pharmaceutical physicians are able to pursue avariety of specialties in their careers and are likelyto build a diverse portfolio.10 Virtually all medicines available for prescriptionwill have had considerable input frompharmaceutical physicians in their development.References1 EuropeanUnion. EU clinical trials directive 2001/20/EC,2001.2 UKGovernment. Medicines for human use (clinical trials)regulations (SI 2004/1031), 2004.3 Royal College of Physicians. Innovating for health:patients, physicians, the pharmaceutical industryand the NHS.Reportofaworkingparty.London:RCP, 2009.4 The NHS ‘involve’ website. www.invo.org.uk5 WMA Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical principles formedical research involving human subjects. Adoptedbythe 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland,June 1964. Most recently amended by the 59th WMAGeneral Assembly, Seoul, October 2008.6 Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. ABPICode of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry 2008(and references therein).C○ Royal College of Physicians 2013 203