Future of Pharma/ future of MSLs

Discussion in 'MSL Board' started by Anonymous, May 23, 2013 at 4:28 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I've been an MSL for about a decade now, and I'm wondering what you all think of the future of pharma and MSLs.

    I've seen CV MSL work kinda dry up and become quite scaled down from the past - with half the MSLs working per drug. Specialty like Oncology seems to have grown. Outcomes seem to have grown tremendously, but Im personally not convinced of the value yet. Its like the oil industry trying to convince me thru analysis that wind energy is bad... an inherent conflict of interest...

    I've got to wonder what the future is... as someone who has about 20 years left to work in my career, I wonder if it makes sense to stick with the pharma thing for the next couple decades, or if there will be a massive axe coming down on all of us with the advent of the ACA.

    Then again, the axe has hit the reps and MSLs hard over the last several years, and maybe its time that the MSLs will become stronger over time, with more opportunity over the next decades.

    What do you all think? Is the MSL thing going away?
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    no. And you should go away.

    Tool
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I have been in a similar situation, with about ten years as an MSL in neuro, psych, CV and GI. As I see it, the MSL job is reasonably stable, but with little prospect for advancement. I don't think that this function is going away in the next ten years. If your primary worry is your paycheck you should be OK.

    My concern is that no one in the industry (outside med affairs) seems to respect this job. It is difficult to make a lateral transition into commercial strategy or BD. MSLs have all the negatives of a sales job, but none of its positives. Because of this, I left med affairs to finish my MBA. After that I will take any low level job in commercial strategy and work my way up. I hope to have a more rewarding career with higher job satisfaction and better pay. With an MSL job, I would never make more than $180K basic. But with a BD job, the basic pay is much higher.