• Pharmaceutical sales representatives call on doctors to provide information about new drugs.sales person making an appointment image by Peter Baxter from Fotolia.com
  
  Crucial to pharmaceutical industry operations is the local representative who visits physicians' offices to introduce, discuss usage, and provide samples of the various drugs available from their company's drug portfolio. The pharmaceutical representative's job is an independent and responsible one, but first and foremost they are sales people.
  
  

Education and Experience

• Pharmaceutical reps come from such academic and professional backgrounds as teaching, business and science. Each salesperson carries drug samples and promotional literature to doctors' offices for the purpose of getting sales. The academic background of pharmaceutical representatives varies from those with liberal arts degrees to those with degrees in the sciences. Academic backgrounds for the most part are not an indicator of success as a pharmaceutical representative. A bachelor's degree is a mandatory minimum for most pharmaceutical jobs.
  
  Manufacturers of complex drugs sometimes called "high science" drugs like those for cancer usually prefer to have sales representatives who have scientific backgrounds in biology, pharmacology or even engineering to enable them to explain the complex nature of these drugs to their physician customers. Other drug classes such as prescription acne medicines may not require a scientific mind to explain their purpose and usage to doctors.
  
  As part of the hiring process, job candidates may have to undergo a series of academic tests covering all manner of patient, drug chemistry and other related areas before they are fully confirmed as employees. Passing these tests is critical to joining the company.
  
  

Independent Business Person

• Pharmacuetical representatives usually work out of their homes and routinely call on a regular set of physicians. They are usually given a company car and carry samples for doctor distribution to patients, product insert sheets which detail the chemical makeup, proper usage, and possible side effects, as well as promotional items like logoed prescription writing pads and mugs to keep the drug's brand name in front of the doctor.
  
  Representatives set up meetings with new and current doctors and often must spend long hours waiting for physicians to give them a few minutes of their time. They have to be able to quickly communicate a drug's central benefit message and answer any technical questions about the product. Their goal is to encourage doctors to prescribe their company's drug to patients suffering with the indicated condition.
  
  

Field Intelligence

• Pharmaceutical representatives also gather feedback from physicians about problems and successes with a drug. They are the front line communicators of the real world experiences that patients are having with a product. Any negative occurrences with a drug is gathered from doctors and relayed back to the manufacturer, especially if those side effects are outside those effects discovered through testing, or if the drug is linked to a death, such as someone using an acne treatment suffering a fatal heart attack. This is a critically important function and one of great responsibility in ensuring that marketed drugs work as intended and as expected by the Federal Drug Administration.