Postgraduate Education and The Changing Interaction With The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

This paper examines therelationship between industry and academia withregard to pharmaceutical research. Thecontinuous technological flux in researchpresents challenges to industry in obtainingadequately prepared scientists withoutinterfering in or disrupting a youngscientists' academic preparation. We presentour recommendations concerning the kinds ofskills required by changing technology andobserve the increasingly collaborativerelationship between academia and industry. Wesuggest the need for broader education forPh.D. and post-graduate students, inducing inthem transferable and productive skills for arapidly changing market. These skills,typically acquired in the liberal arts, wouldprovide young scientists with an awareness oftheir position in the process of scientificdiscovery process. Such scientists will bebetter prepared for making discoveries inscience, as discovery is less the result of anindividual's effort and more the result ofconcerted team efforts.