The Pharmaceutical Industry is and will continue to be one of the most dynamic and competitive areas of American and worldwide business. Although marketing and sales are absolutely critical for continued growth and success of pharmaceutical companies and their initiatives, good clinical practices and the medical education surrounding life-saving medications is critical for opinion leader development and creating therapeutic awareness. My entire education has centered on building skill sets that would allow me to understand the Pharmaceutical Industry and the needs of the healthcare providers who rely upon it for life-saving medications and clinical best practices. Having completed both Pharm.D. and MBA degrees have allowed me to bring together my clinical skills and business knowledge into a greater understanding of the challenges that face healthcare providers and the Industry that supports them. Further, after completing both a Managed Health Care Internship with Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals (Pfizer) and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals, I have a greater insight into home office operations in a large pharmaceutical company. Currently, I work as a Medical Science Liaison with Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Norristown, Pennsylvania. Auxiliums core business strategy is to recognize and market medications in the male health arena. These include testosterone replacement therapy, erectile dysfunction, and prostate and bladder cancers. Along with Key Opinion Leader (KOL) development and training, my duties include providing internal and external clients with cutting edge medical and scientific knowledge, facilitating investigator-initiated research, and identifying new and cutting edge chemotherapeutic medications and hormone replacement therapies and the Investigators who would develop them. Immediately prior to Auxilium, I worked with Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical as an in-house Medical Education Manager. In my position, I had several responsibilities, many of which were to support all primary care and oncology / virology field sales personnel and Medical Science Liaisons concerning medical education and promotional and meded finances and budgets. Key products that I had responsibility over included the new colon cancer Erbitux and the cardiovascular medication Plavix. Further, I had responsibility for developing and maintaining the legal guidelines and the contracts that governed the methods by which Bristol-Myers Squibb recruits, develops, and maintains its local and regional Key Opinion Leaders. Management of key opinion leader databases and honorariums was absolutely necessary due to the previous years Department of Justice ruling against TAP Pharmaceuticals concerning mismanagement of key opinion leader compensation. I also worked in tandem with key marketing teams to develop continuing medical education (CME) and promotional materials that were to be used in nationwide and global live and archived webcasts. During 2001-2002, I was able to rebrand webcasting as an effective sales force communication tool and show that webcasting saved the company greater than $400,000 by eliminating teleconference and conference call fees. This position allowed me to understand what resources are necessary for sales personnel and Medical Science Liaisons to support healthcare providers and deliver key medical education information. I also served as the project manager for the creation of an online sales force allocation and expense tracking software capable of accounting for medical education, operating, marketing, and samples related funds. As the global Pharmaceuticals business enters a new era of widespread patent expiration, decreased blockbuster approvals, and congressional demands to lower drug costs, the importance of infallible medical information and clinical knowledge is undeniable. The Pharmaceutical companies realize the importance of good clinical practices and having clinical experts available to answer the healthcare providers tough clinical questions relevant to their practices. Proper management of Medical Education and promotional grants, Continuing Medical Education, and Clinical Publications will undoubtedly become one of most important aspects of Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing and Sales support. I feel that my experiences have readied me for an advanced position in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The Medical Services professional has the ability to change the practice of medicine. I would like to be the first line of contact for this clinical change. As access to point local physicians and key opinion leaders becomes increasingly more difficult, clinical experts will become much more important for the dissemination of key medical information and therapeutic best practices.