Pharmaceutical Scientist Vs Doctoral Fellow

The differences between pharmaceutical scientists and doctoral fellows can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a pharmaceutical scientist and a doctoral fellow. Additionally, a pharmaceutical scientist has an average salary of $79,535, which is higher than the $53,366 average annual salary of a doctoral fellow.

The top three skills for a pharmaceutical scientist include dosage forms, pharmaceutical sciences and formulation development. The most important skills for a doctoral fellow are patients, cell culture, and data analysis.

Pharmaceutical scientist vs doctoral fellow overview

Pharmaceutical ScientistDoctoral Fellow
Yearly Salary$79,535$53,366
Hourly rate$38.24$25.66
Growth Rate17%17%
Number Of Jobs45,56022,661
Job Satisfaction--
Most Common DegreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Doctoral Degree, 46%
Average Age4141
Years Of Experience44

What does a Pharmaceutical Scientist do?

Pharmaceutical scientists must have master's degrees or doctorates in pharmacology, chemistry, biology, anatomy, or math. Paid around $86K per year, those who choose this career path perform drug discovery research, development, and testing. They also execute experiments for system-based research projects aimed at introducing new drugs to the marketplace.

What does a doctoral fellow do?

A doctoral fellow is a physician that has completed studies and receives a fellowship to cover his/her or her expenses while completing his/her or her medical dissertation. A doctor fellow undergoes this fellowship to get additional training for their chosen sub-specialty. During the fellowship period, a fellow can act as an attending physician or consultant physician with other physicians' direct supervision in the sub-specialty field.

Pharmaceutical scientist vs doctoral fellow salary

Pharmaceutical scientists and doctoral fellows have different pay scales, as shown below.

Pharmaceutical ScientistDoctoral Fellow
Average Salary$79,535$53,366
Salary RangeBetween $55,000 And $115,000Between $39,000 And $72,000
Highest Paying CitySouth San Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest Paying StateCaliforniaHawaii
Best Paying CompanyBASiIBM
Best Paying IndustryPharmaceuticalPharmaceutical

Differences between pharmaceutical scientist and doctoral fellow education

There are a few differences between a pharmaceutical scientist and a doctoral fellow in terms of educational background:

Pharmaceutical ScientistDoctoral Fellow
Most Common DegreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Doctoral Degree, 46%
Most Common MajorPharmacyChemistry
Most Common CollegeDuke UniversityDuke University

Pharmaceutical scientist vs doctoral fellow demographics

Here are the differences between pharmaceutical scientists' and doctoral fellows' demographics:

Pharmaceutical ScientistDoctoral Fellow
Average Age4141
Gender RatioMale, 63.0% Female, 37.0%Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7%
Race RatioBlack or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 9.3% Asian, 32.9% White, 47.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between pharmaceutical scientist and doctoral fellow duties and responsibilities

Pharmaceutical Scientist Example Responsibilities.

  • Manage collaborations with external CROs.
  • Perform testing of raw materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products for release and stability in compliance with GMP.
  • Validate new methods to quantify chemical composition to support the stability programs associate with new drug products submit to the FDA.
  • Review CMC and regulatory filings.
  • Optimize the manufacturing process on NDA product.
  • Coordinate the maintenance and calibration of HPLC systems.
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Doctoral Fellow Example Responsibilities.

  • Lead the in-vitro biophysical and biochemical characterization of homologous recombination and investigate structure-function effects of mutant enzymes.
  • Attend courses in drug discovery, python programming, and next-generation sequencing analyses.
  • Coordinate the validation of data aquisition algorithms (C++, python) for all real and simulate data.
  • Conduct custom synthesis of organic molecules, key intermediates and building blocks for medicinal chemistry applications.
  • Design PCL/PLCL drug delivery system for DC immunotherapy.
  • Succeed in using CRISPR to genetically correct diseas iPSCs.
  • Show More

Pharmaceutical scientist vs doctoral fellow skills

Common Pharmaceutical Scientist Skills
  • Dosage Forms, 13%
  • Pharmaceutical Sciences, 7%
  • Formulation Development, 6%
  • HPLC, 6%
  • DSC, 5%
  • FTIR, 5%
Common Doctoral Fellow Skills
  • Patients, 8%
  • Cell Culture, 6%
  • Data Analysis, 5%
  • Research Projects, 5%
  • Cell Biology, 5%
  • Immunology, 5%

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