Multinational & indigenous drug companies employ Pharmaceutical graduates for promoting their products. Success in this career depends upon personality, communication skills; relationship with Doctors and other healthcare team members. Many pharmacy graduates opt for this career path in accordance with their needs and skills.

Pharm. graduates are employed in Pharmaceutical production of tablets/capsules, liquid orals, ointments, and suppositories or in the production of injections and eye drops. After an apprenticeship period of 18 months, they are approved as manufacturing chemists as per the Drugs and Cosmetics act 1945.

The drugs are required to be safe, effective and of good quality. The quality of the drug is built in by Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). Finished dosage forms are analyzed according to Pharmacopoeial or other procedures to ensure that they conform to established quality standards. This is an upcoming area and large-scale Pharmaceutical industries have separate Quality Assurance Departments which are responsible for total quality control. This is an interesting and a good opportunity for pharmacy graduates & postgraduates.

Discovering of new drugs, new dosage forms, new procedures for manufacturing, discovering new chemical utilities, finding new uses for existing drugs or developing new analytical methodology are some of the activities, performed by the Research and Development department. M. Pharm. or Ph.D.’s are employed for this purpose.

This is the career opportunity for most D. Pharm. and B. Pharm. Graduates

• Hospital Pharmacy
  In the hospital environment, the pharmacist is involved in providing drugs for out-door patients and for the supply of drugs to in-patients inwards. Interaction with patients, nurses, and doctors is often necessary to give drug-related information on its proper use, dosage, interactions, contraindications and side effects. Economic purchase of drugs and proper storage is a vital component of a hospital pharmacist’s job.
• Retail Pharmacy 
  Provision of Pharmacy services at retail counters is the professional service of a pharmacist. The pharmacist is involved in purchasing, storing and proper dispensing of medicines in the community/retail pharmacy.
• Opportunities in the Government sector
  Central and state governments employ pharmacists as drug inspector for licensing and control of sales premises as well as approval and licensing of manufacturing premises. Continuous monitoring of sale and manufacturing premises is done by drug inspectors. Drugs analysts are also employed by the government in various laboratories to perform analysis of drug samples. There are other various opportunities for Defence services, Airforce, Railways & other organizations where Pharmacists are employed.

With the continuous expansion of Pharmacy education, there is an increasing need for qualified teachers. The teachers are required for Diploma institutions in Pharmacy as well as for institutions providing B. Pharm and M. Pharm. courses. B.Pharm with 3 years experience is eligible to be an Asstt. Prof. in a polytechnic/Diploma institutions, while as M.Pharm is the minimum qualification for the post of Asstt. Prof. in Degree institutions.

Increasingly large number of B. Pharm. and M. Pharm. graduates proceed to USA, Canada and European countries for further education. Many students obtain research/ teaching assistant-ship to partially pay for foreign education by passing GRE/TOEFL and other examinations.

Graduates in Pharmacy with entrepreneurial skill can start manufacturing units as well as testing laboratories. Some pharmacists can become consultants and provide expertise for the setting of new pharmaceutical units and solve formulation and other problems.

Pharmacy graduates with excellent communications skills have started magazines, journals, and newspapers providing information about developments in the field of Pharmacy and medicine.

The pharmacists can take up jobs in the regulatory affairs department of various medium and large scale pharmaceutical industries. Currently, this is a newly emerging field with many opportunities.

The Pharmacists can be a member of the clinical research team in hospitals and other institutions. There is vast growth in this sector due to the emergence of CRO’s and MNC’s in our country.