New Medical Science Liaisons come mostly, and unsurprisingly, from various areas of medical fields. We recently conducted surveys to learn about the prior profiles of new MSLs and whether they entered the industry as new MSLs or became MSL while working in pharma.
As expected, and as the survey of 789 Medical Science Liaisons results chart shows below, many indicated coming directly from the medical side of the industry. These came either as a practitioner or from being in a medical-related role such as clinical, medical information, or others, in the life science industry. That accounts for 38% of the survey participants. Close to one-third of the survey participants come from an academic environment such as professors and students. The other 15% jumped from the sales side to become MSLs. And another 15% indicated they came from other areas.
A separate survey leading to 765 respondents reveals that more than half the survey-takers, or 56.5% entered the pharma industry as new Medical Science Liaisons. While the other 43.5% became MSLs after working in the industry for some time.
The results show that the cohort of MSL is composed from a large variety of individuals, from newly minted medical students, to experienced clinical trial managers, market access and medical information roles, and from nursing to medical specialists. This mix of background and experiences makes the role even more interesting, and team members can complement and learn from each other by pulling from their previous experiences. The MSL salary is also an attractive pull, averaging more than $170,000/year. Learn more here about Medical Affairs compensation.
These surveys were conducted at separate times through the LinkedIn platform. Therefore the answers and results from one survey do not directly correlate to the other.
