What to expect from a career in pharmaceutical engineering

If you didn’t already know it, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to Price Waterhouse Coopers the the global pharmaceutical market could be worth nearly $1.6 trillion by 2020. An expanding middle class and high demand for medicines in emerging and growth markets will continue to evolve this industry. The industry continues to offer diverse career options to both fresh graduates and experts.

In the mainline pharmaceutical industry, engineers play a key role in all aspects of this vital industry from discovery to drug development to manufacturing and marketing – starting from the design of a new facility to optimising manufacturing processes and refining packaging solutions. Pharmaceutical engineers also play a key role in the development, design and manufacturing of equipment, machinery and solutions used in across the drug discovery, development and manufacturing cycle.

The most important distinction in pharmaceutical engineering is the industry’s strict prerequisite for good manufacturing practice (GMP). Pharmaceutical engineers must be able to deal with complicated GMP demands starting from concept, qualification, validation to development, implementation and execution of an excellent quality pharmaceutical system.

A pharmaceutical engineer’s job is both rewarding and challenging one. Whether you are in mainline pharma or working for any one of the myriad allied industries that serve the mainline pharma, biotech or healthcare industries, the work you do contributes to saving lives.

The job is both challenging and rewarding, especially in relation to regulatory compliance. The pharmaceutical industry is one the most highly regulated industries in the world and with very good reason. To excel as a pharmaceutical engineer, you must be able to handle the increasingly complex risk-based GMP regulations that come with the job irrespective of the function you opt for.

A typical day for a pharmaceutical engineer will depend on the company they work in and the role they perform. Roles include research of new drugs and drug delivery systems, upgrading processes, pharmaceutical manufacturing, labelling and packaging, facility design, system and process automation, sales and marketing, compliance, management and education.

Fabtech is one of the world’s foremost engineering companies that offer start-to-finish solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech companies as well as research centres and hospitals.

At Fabtech we call ourselves Life Engineers – we are committed to building pharmaceutical capability all over the world to ensure everyone has access to affordable medicines, especially those that save lives.

We have several challenging and rewarding opportunities for pharmaceutical engineers to excel in any of our functional areas. So if you are considering a future in pharmaceutical engineering, our careers page is a good place to start.