With all the major players here desperately building their young talent pipelines this is a seller’s market for graduates wanting to get into this industry There’s not much you can’t do within the pharmaceutical sector. This may seem a bit of a contradiction, seeing as this is – after all – a highly regulated sector.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University pharmacy graduates have done it again; finishing top in the national pre-registration examination set by the SA Pharmacy Council. Like the BCom Accounting graduates, the BPharm students have consistently performed well obtaining a 100% pass rate for the second time in 2009 and nine of the 31 graduates passing with distinction.

The production line at GlaxoSmithKline's factory If you're service-oriented and feel strongly about contributing to the health care needs of South African, then take a look at this sector   Working with pharmaceuticals is not just about dispensing pills to patients and sticking labels on containers.

Malani, ex-North West student, says… Malani du Toit recently moved into the pharmaceutical sector as a medical representative for multinational giant, Boehringer-Ingelheim after graduating from the University of the North West with both a BA Human Movement Science and a BC Dietetics.

Although the pharmaceutical sector is not the easiest arena to break into, those who show commitment and passion will have a bright future. Between Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s various recent pronouncements about the benefits of natural remedies versus manufactured drugs, the Treatment Action Campaign’s push for anti-retroviral drugs and the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV and Aids (UNGass) held in New York at the beginning of June, the pharmaceutical industry has been in the news a lot recently.