My first exposure to pharmaceutical research was through drug testing research studies while I was in college. At the time, I had no idea that I was going to ever become part of the pharmaceutical industry. I was pursuing a degree in creative writing, and I was very broke. The pharmaceutical research studies allowed me to pay some bills in exchange for putting an unknown chemical in my body. I was in my 20s and somewhat foolish. I gladly agreed to the drug testing trials, and fortunately nothing went wrong.
Most people who become involved in the pharmaceutical industry either work on the medical end of it or on the marketing and advertising end of it. I am one of the few people who I know who did both. I ended up getting a double major in writing and mathematics, and I have strong experience in chemistry as well. Out of college, I got a pharmaceutical marketing research job. Basically, I was paid to determine what kind of pharmaceutical products the market wanted and how much people would pay for them. I found this pharmaceutical market research to be pretty interesting, but I wanted to do more. I was pretty idealistic back then, and I figure that if I was involved in the drug companies, I should actually be inventing products to help people.
That is precisely the reason why I went back to school for a second degree. I wanted to be a pharmaceutical researcher, you see. Pharmaceutical jobs pay very well and they are absolutely fascinating. Our knowledge of the human body and the way it interacts with various chemicals is growing so quickly that it seemed like pharmaceutical research was the cutting edge. Although it took me several years, I finally got a new pharmaceutical research job. I have been able to carry out studies into some of the most interesting and promising compounds in the treatment of many serious diseases. Pharmaceutical research has been not only extremely lucrative, but also personally rewarding.
The thing I like most about human drug research is the sense of really being a part of changing people's lives. The pharmaceutical research that I do is, for the most part, focused on treating diseases that are serious and life-threatening. As such, we are able to try out certain chemicals and compounds with emergency clearance on patients who are at death's door. Sometimes this pharmaceutical research goes nowhere, but sometimes it leads to emergency recoveries. These moments are some of the most precious ones in my life.
