Careers in Regulatory Affairs: A Sure Bet!
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Regulatory affairs is one of the hottest and fasting growing career tracks in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices industries. The trouble is,there is very little formal training available to prepare individuals for careers in regulatory affairs. Historically, most regulatory affairs professionals honed their skills through on-the-job training. This meant that the only way to pursue a career in regulatory affairs was to first get hired at a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company and then transfer into the regulatory affairs department to learn your craft. Not surprisingly, due to expansive growth of the biotech and medical devices industries, there are ongoing shortages of regulatory affairs professionals, most notably in the area of regulatory writing. In an attempt to deal with these shortages, a number of universities including Georgetown University and SUNY-Stonybrook offer some regulatory affairs training as part of their
master's degree and certificate programs in biotechnology. Further, the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) recently developed several certification programs and an online university that offers four (4) introductory regulatory affairs courses to interested individuals. For those of you graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who enjoy writing, are not bored by clinical research and like to work on computers most of the day, a career in regulatory affairs may be right for you!
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi,
Great article! Which companies should I apply to if I am interested in regulatory affairs, but have no experience? Also, what can I do to become more familiar with the industry? I have a Master's degree in Public Health and a Master's degree in Business Administration. How difficult would if be for me to transition to regulatory affairs?
chantayw2000@yahoo.com
I'm an attorney with almost 5 years of experience in compliance and regulatory affairs, but in a different industry, not in the science world. anyone have any advice on making the transition? i find the science and medical field much more interesting than what I'm doing now, but not sure how to make the move.
Hi there
There is a lot in what you say. I run a recruitment company specialising in recruiting for Regulatory Affairs staff in the UK and can often help people find that first step on the ladder. My advice is to contact a GOOD recruitment company that specialises in this area and they will help you find a suitable role to get some experience and start your career.
Good luck
Jon