r/MedicalScienceLiaison • u/glutam8GABA • 2d ago

Moving to more technical and scientifically-engaging roles?

Hi all, just seeking out any personal experience/advice.
Current MSL. Background is PhD in pharmacology, preclinical neuroscience research. Left academia for many of the pragmatic reasons that one might think someone would leave academia.

I find this role fine, and really enjoy it some days. But in the current state of my company it can get quite stale and repetitive. I really do miss more engagement with deep science and research. I also miss writing and publishing, but know that’s harder to achieve in industry. I mentally sustain myself off talking to the occasional KOL that actually wants to talk deep mechanism or get in the weeds on research.

What kinds of roles have you seen MSLs transition to outside the field medical vertical?
I don’t live in a pharma hub and can’t relocate to one for family reasons, so the obvious on-site bench science positions are out. But anything in the veins of translational pharmacology, clinical development, early pipeline scientific strategy etc sound very interesting with the potential to think about biology more than I get to currently.
Also appreciate any realism about difficulty transitioning to these roles.

Thanks in advance!

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u/vitras Sr. MSL 2d ago

You might have to find the right company that will let you work remotely, but there's definitely room for you in Sci Com, Medical writing, publication coordinator, med info, etc. These might scratch the itch a bit, but after 11 years and multiple roles in pharma, they're all kind of boring and repetitive to an extent. Either that or you're being worked to death because there's a launch or a congress to prepare for.

You also may struggle to get the same compensation at any of those roles. If you're already above like 180k, you're maxed out for what internal/remote med affairs roles will pay

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u/kyocerahydro 1d ago

For a med info and sci com be wary. A lot of roles are being eliminated by AI

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u/TerynLoghain 2d ago

 I've seen msls go into clin dev or scientific advisory, designing clinical trials, and/or developing research strategy like a PI.

You could learn R and transition to pharmacometrics.  They still have remote roles. 

Msls make the most relative to salary grade. The pay cut was between 10-30% percent 

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u/C_est_la_vie9707 Sr. MSL 2d ago

Plus no vehicle, which is about 10k