What is a Medical Science Liaison? 7 Things PhDs Should Know

If you're a PhD looking for a job in industry, the Medical Science Liaison position is a great job to consider.

Especially if you're looking for…

...a high paying job

...a job that allows you to stay close to science

...a job that allows you to travel a lot

My goal here is to help you understand whether or not this job might be right for you.

Below I’ve outlined 7 things you should know about Medical Science Liaison positions before you decide whether it’s the right career for you.

1. A Medical Science Liaison is not a sales position.

In most countries there's a wall between the sales team and the Medical Science Liaisons.

The liaison's focus more on science, teaching, supporting the drug, and building relationships with key opinion leaders, or KOL's.

It is not a sales position, in fact, you cannot sell.

2. Clinical experience is NOT required.

This is one of the most common questions we get from PhD's, well I can't be an MSL because I don't have any clinical experience or I don't have any drug pathway experience.

That does not matter.

In fact, in our Association, we just had somebody with an engineering background get into a top Medical Science Liaison Director role at Pfizer.

We've had other people get into top roles at Celgene, many of the biggest pharmaceutical companies, many of the biggest CRO's in this position, without any clinical experience whatsoever.

Remember as a PhD, you have a Doctor of Philosophy.

What's philosophy? Knowledge and the ability to ascertain knowledge.

You're a doctor of learning.

You can learn the drug pathway.

You can learn whatever drug or treatment or medical device, the supporting material, you can learn that and you can have the discussions, the high level scientific discussions with key opinion leaders.

3. You will spend most of your time having high level conversations with KOLs.

This is crucial for this role.

You'll spend most of your time supporting KOL's.

These can be MD's who might be prescribing the drug that you're supporting, or the treatment, or the medical device.

You need to be able to have the high level clinical, medical, scientific conversations with these people, which is why you, as a PhD are being hired into these roles faster than anybody else.

It used to be just other MD's or people with pharmacology degrees were hired into this role, but now PhD's are being hired into this role faster than anyone else.

It's a great job to consider now because you can have these conversations.

Now you might be thinking, oh, I have to be an extrovert or great at dealing with other people.

You don't, you can be an introvert.

Yes, you have to be able to deal with other people, you have to be able to talk about science but you can do that, you've been trained to do that as a PhD.

You also will be presenting a lot.

Some of the presentations, a lot of the presentations could just be one on one, it could be slightly larger but this is what you'll be doing in this role.

Then you’ll be taking the information, the insights and the feedback you get from the field, from the key opinion leaders in the field back to the company producing the drug, the drug company you work for, and relay those insights.

4. You will develop knowledge of treatment timelines.

If you don't know about this you will gain this knowledge as an MSL, whether it's the clinical phase timelines or what the clinical trials look like.

You'll understand the production cycle of drug development or other treatments like medical devices.

Many cases, if you're working for a pharmaceutical company it'll be a drug.

MSL's become more active closer to the time when the drug is released.

They support the drug afterwards.

You're not doing too much, depends on the role of course, but you're not doing too much before the drug is actually released into the market.

So, understanding this, reading about it, talking to other MSL's, setting up information interviews, getting access to a network of MSL's can be very valuable here as you're starting to pursue this job option.

So you can know if it's right for you.

5. The MSL role is high paying and fast growing.

I'm gonna keep coming back to this topic. In the U.S., it's the fourth highest paid career at the entry level.

This means that if it's your first career after a PhD you can still make a very healthy salary.

Many countries have MSL's, they might call them something different, such as Medical Affairs positions or Medical Associates.

Either way, it's a very popular position worldwide for PhD's right now and it pays very, very well.

Plus, it allows you to not just get a lot of pay but to build up your network because of the variety of people you will be working with and it gives you experience in a wide variety of topics.

6. MSLs know about regulations.

A lot of companies will have a Medical Affairs Department and a Regulatory Affairs Department.

In the U.S. there's something called The Sunshine Act, this prevents companies from giving kickbacks or whatever else you might call them, to MD's to encourage them to buy their drugs.

This used to be common practice, but isn't allowed anymore.

Which is why the Medical Science Liaison position is so popular.

As an MSL you're in this position where you're almost like a professor of the pharmaceutical company who talks to the KOL's and discusses the science freely.

You're not worried about making sales and you get to give feedback to the company.

Again, it's removing that sales component completely so that the MD's are not encouraged in anyway to use a treatment when it's not the best treatment, just because they feel obligated to a company who bought them a big dinner or got them a golf course package etc.

So, MSL positions are here to stay.

These types of regulations are increasing.

And your understanding of these regulations can make you a better job candidate for MSL positions.

7. You should build and understand a KOL territory map.

If you’re thinking that an MSL career might be right for you, what can you do to make yourself a better candidate?

Start going on Grand Rounds.

Go to a local hospital, maybe you're doing research right now, at a hospital or at a graduate school, or institution connected to a hospital, try to go on Grand Rounds.

Also, start identifying who the key opinion leaders are in your location.

Or if you're applying to a job in a different location, identify the KOL's in that location and create what is called a territory map.

This is something that you can look up, it's something that we work with our associates on, the associates that want to get into MSL positions.

Creating a territory map before you go in for an interview can be very advantageous.

Does the MSL position sound like a good fit for you?

Ready to transition into an MSL role?

Let me know in the comments.

To learn more about transitioning into industry, including how to gain instant access to industry career training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, a complete industry transition plan, and a private online job referral network for PhDs only, get on the wait list for the Cheeky Scientist Association.