How to become a Medical Representative

Medical Representatives are also known as Medical Sales Representatives or Pharmaceutical Sales Representative professionals. He/She is responsible for communicating between the drug manufacturing companies or organisations and medical professionals. They are responsible for selling the companies' products such as drugs or medical equipment. Before we can discuss all that let us first know in detail who is a Medical Representative.

What Does a Medical Representative Do?

A Medical Representative is a Healthcare Professional and is also known as Pharmaceutical Sales Representative. He/She promotes and sells the company's medications, prescription drugs, and medical equipment. They apply various strategies to bring awareness about the drugs to the medical line personnel. Their target clients are pharmacists, nurses, and doctors. They build the company's relationships with clients and stakeholders. They provide information about drugs and influence doctors and pharmacists to prescribe their company's medicines.

Qualifications for Medical Representative

• Candidates must have passed their 10+2 examination in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Biology
• Candidates must be passed Graduation with at least a 50% score
• A Bachelor of Pharmacy, B.Pharma degree from a recognized university
• A Master of Pharmacy, M.Pharma degree is from a recognized university
• The candidates must pursue Undergraduate or Postgraduate Pharmacy Courses or Medical Courses from the top Pharmacy colleges

Bachelor’s

• B. Pharm. (Bachelor of Pharmacy)
• B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) Pharmacy
• B.Pharm. (Bachelor of Pharmacy) Clinical Pharmacy
• B.Pharm. (Bachelor of Pharmacy) Industrial Pharmacy
• B.Pharm. (Bachelor of Pharmacy) Pharmacognosy
• B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) in Pharmacology and Toxicology

Post-Bachelor’s

• M. Pharm. (Master of Pharmacy)
• MBA in Pharma Biotechnology
• MBA in Pharmaceutical Management
• Masters in Pharmacy-Pharmaceutical Chemistry
• M. Pharm. (Master of Pharmacy) Biopharmaceutics
• M. Pharm. (Master of Pharmacy) Pharmacognosy
• M. Pharm. (Master of Pharmacy) Clinical Pharmacy
• M.Sc. (Master of Science) Pharmacy
• M. Pharm. (Master of Pharmacy) Industrial Pharmacy

Entrance Exam

Before taking up any course or degree, candidates will have to write any of these entrance exams such as GPAT, AIPSSCET, BITS HD Pharmacy, APPGECET Pharmacy, UPSEE, GPAT, NEET, BITSAT, MHT-CET, TS EAMCET, AP EAMCET, BCECE, WBJEE. GPAT, BITS HD, NIPER JEE, HPCET, OJEE, AP PGECET, TS PGECET, and TANCET among others.

Top Colleges for Pharmaceutical Science

Parul University, NIPER, ICT, BITS Hyderabad, NIRMA University, Amity University, DIPSAR, Lovely Professional University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, ICT Mumbai, Jamia Hamdard University and many more.

Medical Representative Roles and Responsibilities

• Provides prescribed medicines
• Meets with doctors and health experts
• They take feedback from the customers
• Maintains reports and sets sales targets
• Schedules appointments with medical personnel
• Presents product samples and statistics to clients
• Assists projects, develops and maintains reports
• Using sales capabilities to liaise with centred doctors
• Looks for the client's needs and gives appropriate products
• Promotes or makes awareness to sell the company's products
• Represents and attends company’s meetings, convention calls, and training sessions

Medical Representative Skills

• Bilingual and interpersonal skills
• Must have business and sales skills
• Prepares sales to track records
• Must have presentation and resilience skills
• Must have proven medical sales experience
• Time Management, negotiation, and sales skills
• Ability to create prescriptions and record-making
• Communication, organisational and negotiation skills
• Must have commercial awareness and research skills
• Experience in Medical sales and knowledge of MS Office
• Willing to adapt the changes and take up new challenges
• Ability to maintain relationships with clients and team members
• Must have knowledge about Microbiology and the human body
• Must have knowledge about databases, statistics, product lines, medical issues

Salary of Medical Representative

The Pharmaceutical Sales Representative or Medical Representative's salary in India ranges between Rs 6.3 lakhs and Rs 24.0 lakhs with an average annual salary of Rs 3.8 lakhs per year. Below we have given some of the top recruiters.

• Sun Pharmaceuticals
• Novartis
• Abbott
• Cipla
• Cadila Pharmaceuticals
• Ajanta Pharma

Medical Representative Career Paths

A Medical Representative with working experience can build their careers in following areas such as

• Emergency Medical Technician
• Team Leader
• Account Manager
• District Manager
• Pharmacist
• Speciality Sales Representative
• Pharmacist Technician
• Medical Sales Manager

Why you should choose a Medical Representative?

• It provides rapid career growth
• Higher pay salaries
• Job satisfaction
• Travel opportunities
• Work Flexibility
• Building Connections

Conclusion

In this article, we have given you information on who is a Medical Representative, how to become a Medical Representative, the required qualifications, skills, Medical Representative job roles, and salary. This article covers all the important aspects of becoming a Medical Representative.