Kamal Shahani, Managing Director, Cliniminds, Unit of Tenet Health Edutech Pvt. Ltd

A country like India which is full of potential, is also left with a gaping hole due to the scarcity in the number of skilled workers in the pharmaceutical industry. With India holding a vital position in the pharmaceutical sector it becomes essential to give more importance to discovery of new drugs, medical devices & vaccines and development of life sciences where digitization plays an important role.

Market Growth

With being the world’s 3^rd largest industry by volume, the Indian pharma industry that valued at US$41.7 billion is currently growing at a CAGR of 12 % to grow 3x and value more than $120 billion by 2030. Being the 12^th largest exporter of medical goods, the Pharma exports stood at US$24.44 billion in FY2021 witnessing an 18% growth.

Post Covid19 India’s share in the global market is increasing as more and more countries are looking to source their pharmaceutical requirements from India. This is creating major opportunities for the Indian companies. Large number of global companies are investing in India’s life sciences, pharma and healthcare sector. India also witnessed a 200% increase in FDI’s (Foreign Direct Investments) in FY2021, growing at a rate of 53% during the same period.

 Increasing Stature

As India is becoming a prime destination of global clinical trials, large number of global pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical trials in India as the country offers a robust clinical trial regulatory framework, qualified professionals, infrastructure, and cost advantage. Statistical analysis and Clinical data management are other important sub segment where large number of global pharma companies and CROs outsource their statistical analysis and data management activities. This sector is also creating over 6,000 new highly skilled jobs every year while currently growing at over 20% per annum.

Growing Need in Pharma & Life Sciences

Large number of global MNC pharma companies are outsourcing pharmacovigilance processes from India, including ICSRs reporting, aggregate report writing, signal detection, risk management and other important pharmacovigilance processes. With changes in Indian pharmacovigilance regulations, Indian pharmaceutical companies are hiring qualified professionals in this domain. This sector alone is creating over 3,000 highly skilled new jobs in India.

Regulatory affairs are another area where major global pharmaceutical companies outsource their Chemistry, Manufacturing & Controls and Regulatory operations. This area requires highly skilled workforce and India alone needs over 3,000 highly skilled professionals in this domain.

Another area where India is becoming a destination for the global pharma and healthcare companies, is the business analytics & data science. India is a major hub for competitive intelligence, forecasting, HEOR (Health Economics Outcomes Research), market research and sales force analytics.  So, there are thousands of new jobs being created in this sector alone, with more than 2,000 highly skilled fresh graduates and post graduates are required in this domain every year.

As Indian pharmaceutical companies are building huge in-house medical writing capacity, and multinational pharmaceutical companies & CROs are outsourcing their medical writing processes to India, over 1,500 highly qualified and highly skilled professionals are required each year in areas like medical & scientific writing.

Skills in Need

All the above areas mentioned require special skill sets and most of these skill sets are not provided as a part of the traditional university education neither at graduate nor at post graduate level. As the outsourcing and localization of these processes is increasing, companies are finding it hard to recruit professionals and train fresh graduates. For the entry level positions, companies are looking for graduates or post graduates preferably with the suitable job skills.

Fresh graduates and post graduates are needed to acquire necessary jobs skills. Depending upon their graduate or post graduate degree, these skills include clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, business analytics, statistical analysis & data management, medical writing, regulatory affairs and other relevant technical skills. With no pen and paper jobs available anymore, it becomes vital to have great typing skills. Some basic skills on Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint and Excel) would give boost to your candidature.

Last but not the least, communication skills play an important role during interviews. Acquiring these skills would give you the advantage and edge in the job markets where thousands of new life sciences, pharma, and allied medical graduates and post graduates are aspiring to join.

There are thousands of new jobs being created in this sector each year. Investing in acquiring suitable skills will not only get you your first job but also help you grow in this sector. And with skill gap becoming a great point of concern in the Pharma and life sciences sector, it’s time for companies and individuals to remodel their strategy to build a smarter workforce.