pharmaceutical chemestry

agent graves

i want to do chemistry in college, but i was wondering if i done a degree in standard chemistry, rather than pharmaceutical chem, could i still work in the pharmaceutical industry?

yer man!

yes of course you can, the two classes in Nuig are together for most modules, the pharm class have just more emphasis on documentation and stuff. The chemistry degree is pretty handy as it opens up slightly more doors after college with regard to post grad.

Woodward

You can but doing a Pharm degree will give you an edge and still allow you to work in other areas of chem as you will cover pretty much everything general chem students do. The course in NUIM is pretty fantastic and includes a 6 month work placement which is a blessing when you finish as most jobs demand previous experience

yer man!

I'm in chem in nuig and the pharms are in with us, they have compulsory placement, we do not, we got placement, they did not. Don't base your decision for a course on placement, to an employer they don't really care, it's more about your abilty and interest.

Woodward

yer man! wrote: »

I'm in chem in nuig and the pharms are in with us, they have compulsory placement, we do not, we got placement, they did not. Don't base your decision for a course on placement, to an employer they don't really care, it's more about your abilty and interest.

Its the exact opposite. The employer only cares about you experience, they dont care how interested you are or what you got in your degree once you have some working experience

yer man!

Woodward wrote: »

Its the exact opposite. The employer only cares about you experience, they dont care how interested you are or what you got in your degree once you have some working experience

Sorry I meant for getting the work experience not the a job, ugh I'm too tired. Obviously an employer really wants work experience.

agent graves

well im applying to nuim so i dont know if they do a placement there, in yer opinions which would be the better choice, normal or pharm? im going to do chemistry either way but i just want an idea of which one would serve me better down the line.

Woodward

patrickpaul wrote: »

well im applying to nuim so i dont know if they do a placement there, in yer opinions which would be the better choice, normal or pharm? im going to do chemistry either way but i just want an idea of which one would serve me better down the line.

I did pharm & biomedical chemistry in NUIM and you do a 6 month placement from the end of 3rd year to december of 4th year. In pharm chem you do all the modules that general chemistry do until third year along with some extra pharm ones in place of maths and other subjects. In 4th year you focus on synthesis and pharmaceutical chem instead of the boring phys chem and spectroscopy that general chem students do as well

agent graves

Woodward wrote: »

I did pharm & biomedical chemistry in NUIM and you do a 6 month placement from the end of 3rd year to december of 4th year. In pharm chem you do all the modules that general chemistry do until third year along with some extra pharm ones in place of maths and other subjects. In 4th year you focus on synthesis and pharmaceutical chem instead of the boring phys chem and spectroscopy that general chem students do as well

interesting, and how do you find working in pharm now? that is if you are working, god only knows what this country will be like by the time i get my degree.

Woodward

patrickpaul wrote: »

interesting, and how do you find working in pharm now? that is if you are working, god only knows what this country will be like by the time i get my degree.

I'm not working atm cos I'm (hopefully) about to start a PhD but I've worked in pharm before and its pretty good. There is a lot more paperwork than people think but you get used to it. The extra modules really give you the edge over other graduates when going for a job

yer man!

Woodward wrote: »

I'm not working atm cos I'm (hopefully) about to start a PhD but I've worked in pharm before and its pretty good. There is a lot more paperwork than people think but you get used to it. The extra modules really give you the edge over other graduates when going for a job

It's all paperwork...... and excel.....

agent graves

well paper work and computer work wouldnt bother me because i wont be doing it all day every day the lab work would break it up, thanks for the info and all the best with your Ph.D..

yer man!

patrickpaul wrote: »

well paper work and computer work wouldnt bother me because i wont be doing it all day every day the lab work would break it up, thanks for the info and all the best with your Ph.D..

That's what I thought too however in pharmaceutical manfacturing there isn't all that much lab work. That would be in R&D which isn't incredibly strong in Ireland. There are QC labs however these would be occupied by technicians if you wanted to go down that route.

Woodward

I worked in QC and you spend nearly as much time writing up the analysis and putting it into the computer system as you do actually carrying out the analysis

agent graves

i see, well im going to apply for the BSC pharmaceutical & biomedical chemistry and put the general science as second, even though the different degrees can get me working in the same things, It seems my first choice would educate me a little better so to speak, thanks for yer inputs.

dirtyden

Woodward wrote: »

I did pharm & biomedical chemistry in NUIM and you do a 6 month placement from the end of 3rd year to december of 4th year. In pharm chem you do all the modules that general chemistry do until third year along with some extra pharm ones in place of maths and other subjects. In 4th year you focus on synthesis and pharmaceutical chem instead of the boring phys chem and spectroscopy that general chem students do as well

Phyiscal chemistry and spectroscopy are quite important tools for an industrial chemist, almost as much so as general synthesis. Things like Gibbs free energy are not ignored when you are dealing with everday issues like why an incorrect crystal form had been generated etc. Pharmaceutical chemistry is not all about synthesis, in fact in manufacturign the properties and interactions of particles is just as important.

I would suggest a degree in general chemistry myself as it would open more options to you, and general chemistry is just as attractive as pharmaceutical chemistry to an employer be they pharma or otherwise. If you can get a placement during college though that is a big plus.

Woodward

dirtyden wrote: »

Phyiscal chemistry and spectroscopy are quite important tools for an industrial chemist, almost as much so as general synthesis. Things like Gibbs free energy are not ignored when you are dealing with everday issues like why an incorrect crystal form had been generated etc. Pharmaceutical chemistry is not all about synthesis, in fact in manufacturign the properties and interactions of particles is just as important.

I would suggest a degree in general chemistry myself as it would open more options to you, and general chemistry is just as attractive as pharmaceutical chemistry to an employer be they pharma or otherwise. If you can get a placement during college though that is a big plus.

You study pchem until third year so you know most of the stuff the general chemists do and some of the pharm modules are specifically focused on process design and scale up.

dirtyden

Woodward wrote: »

You study pchem until third year so you know most of the stuff the general chemists do and some of the pharm modules are specifically focused on process design and scale up.

Yeah I will be honest I do not know much about the pharm chem course so I am only going on personal perspective.

I still find it surprising what odd little nuggets of learning can come to my aid that at the time appeared useless.

My work actually involves a lot of process introduction so maybe I might have found the scale-up course useful but I have found every process is different and nothing really follows exactly a specific set of rules.

There are obviously plus sides to going either route.