Over the past decade there has been a marked increase in the variety of
specialist pharma MBA courses on offer. These courses last from one week in the
case of most mini MBAs, up to a year’s full-time study or equivalent. And so
the depth of learning provided by these different types of course varies
enormously. Both the public and private sector offer courses — sometimes they
are provided by alliances of both.
Who takes the courses?
As a trainer and tutor who has been involved with five different MBA
courses, I see a tremendous variety in the background of participants.
All of my courses have been for organizers based in Europe; I see
participants from right across the continent but also from other regions —
particularly the Middle East. Course participants are mostly in middle or
senior management positions. Most are working in the pharmaceutical industry or
for companies serving the industry but who lack commercial background. Most
commonly participants have an R&D background.
Where do courses take place?
Courses may be completely computer based, they may be run on-campus at a
university, at a conference hotel, or be held in-company. But often today there
is a combination. For example, there is often preparatory on-line learning work
to do before a face-to-face course starts.
Some companies see it is as an advantage that the participants they send to
an open course get the chance to interact with their peers from other
companies. Others prefer the confidentiality that in-house training ensures.
Evolution and trends
Of course, you can choose to study a general course rather than a
specialist pharmaceutical one — as I did when I studied for an MA in Business
Studies at the University of Sheffield near the beginning of my career; at that
time there were no specialist pharma masters degrees on offer. I studied
full-time for 12 months in the city that later gained increased fame as the
setting for the film The Full Monty. The intake of students at the School of
Management Sciences there has multiplied more than twenty fold since that time.
Specialist pharma MBAs and mini MBAs began to be set up from about 20 years
ago. I detect three factors that have had a major impact on the nature of
courses on offer over that time.
- First, the cost of public courses has risen considerably. This means that anyone contemplating a year’s full-time course has to take into account not only the salary they will forgo but also hefty course fees and costs.
- Second, the average pharmaceutical executive is today busier than in the past.
- And third, distance learning technology is much more advanced today than it was 20 years ago.
All this has had several consequences. There is a trend towards shorter
courses, and courses that take students away from their workplace for less
time. The cost-effectiveness and better quality of distance learning has led to
its much greater application to pharma courses. These trends have led to a much
more noticeable growth in the number of mini MBAs on offer than of full MBAs.
Mini MBA courses clearly have to limit the material they cover. Normally
sessions or modules include:
• An introduction to the pharmaceutical industry
• Strategy
• Marketing
• Business Development
• Finance
• Leadership.
While distance learning courses have gained in popularity because of
cheapness, and they do allow flexibility on when coursework has to be done,
they have the drawback that interaction is usually limited. To offset this,
courses have been set up which offer students the chance to participate in
periodic workshops.
As a tutor for the Manchester University MSc program, I field questions
from students by e-mail and also lead a face-to-face marketing workshop which
is part of an annual Winter School. Though this is not strictly an MBA course,
I list it below, since it includes the option of a Masters Degree in
Pharmaceutical Business Development and Licensing.
Specialist pharma vs general courses
Although some issues the pharma industry faces are no different to those
applying to any other, many aren’t. With time at a premium, a specialist pharma
course can cut more quickly to the chase, addressing topics of most relevance
to pharma participants.
When I am kicking off a face-to-face course, I first cover a few pharma
fundamentals. I usually spend the first session up to the coffee break on these
specific pharma industry characteristics, because I have found that this avoids
spending time later in explanations to puzzled participants. For example:
• The majority of participants don’t understand that a product’s commercial
life may well not end when the patent expires. Why should they? No one has ever
explained intellectual property to them! So I devote 10 minutes to that topic.
• The cost structure of a pharma company is very different to that of most
of other industries. When the relatively very high R&D and low
manufacturing cost elements are explained, a lot then falls into place.
Selecting a course
I have found courses that are run by organizations in Turkey and Poland. In
India over 20 organizations are currently advertising pharma MBAs. The list on
the right focuses on courses run by organizations in the USA and Europe. I hope
that the links below will help potential participants choose the course most
suited to their own particular needs.
Pharma MBA courses
Full-length MBA courses
MSc course
• Manchester University
Pharmacy School (for MSc in Pharmaceutical
Business Development and Licensing, in association with UK Pharmaceutical
Licensing Group
Mini-MBA courses
• Management
Forum, London
• Marcus Evans, London
About the author
John Ansell is a pharma business consultant