Pursuing an MSL career is an adventurous job, a daunting journey around the world, which is why it is not easy for many to kick off their first MSL job. For anyone who wants to start their career, they get much advice and recommendations about MSL courses, workshops, or even webinars to understand the core value of the MSL role, but they forget to tell that it is not only about understanding the job description and doing its technicalities professionally. Haunting MSL role is beyond all of these.
The best possible description of this journey is to balance the dilemma between the known and the unknown. The known part is about getting skilled either technically or working on the personality. And the unknown part is most likely related to innovation and industry challenges.
To make this balance happen, the aspiring MSL needs to realize the importance of the role, first by educating themselves about this role and understanding the diverse responsibilities of the MSL. This happens when we learn about the MSL basics at least three times from different mentors around the world. The more they learn and digest the basics, the more they realize that there is no perfect workbook for this job since there is an external multifactorial environment other than their internal environment, which will prepare them well.
This external environment could be divided into 3 sections:
- The geographical area and market type
- Therapy area
- MSL career ladder
Understanding these sections would play a pivotal role in determining what is the strategy to make your career path in the medical affairs field. To illustrate more about these sections, we would apply them to the Middle East region.
The Middle East as a region is an interesting market with a specific geographical area in the world. The geographical area is known for its central location, diverse population, rich market, and geopolitical incidents, besides economic variation between the countries in this region. The Middle East is considered a consumer market type more than an innovative one.
The second section is related to the therapy area, which is related to the scientific technicality of the MSL role. And the last section is understanding the career path ladder of MSL in the specific region. In the Middle East, it is popular to be promoted from the sales team to the medical affairs team.
So, from the insights of the previous example, we could deduce the possible daunting job plan for the MSL role in the Middle East that the MSL aspirant could start their early career in sales and then show their scientific skills to be promoted to the medical affairs department. This could be the best and straightforward MSL career haunting in the Middle East. But who says that there is no other adventurous plan for MSL haunting in the Middle East?
Medical affairs skills are dependent more on individual skills, which include non-scientific technical skills such as KOL engagement, strategic management, leadership, communication skills, and presentation skills. This could be the missing puzzle that hinders the person from getting the MSL role. But this doesn’t mean that it is impossible to get these skills or to try to find the gap in the market to get in. This could be done by having dedication and patience within a learning journey, besides growing your professional connections, who would be your career coaches later.
About the author:
Zeinab Khaled Mohamed Awad
Zeinab Khaled Awad is an Oncology Pharmacist at the Health Insurance Nasr City Cancer Center and a Research Assistant at the German University in Cairo (GUC), specializing in the synthesis of novel immunomodulatory anti-cancer agents. With a strong foundation in Medical Affairs and MSL technical skills (CPD UK-certified), she has fundamentals in KOL engagement, scientific communication, and clinical research since she is aspiring MSL role in her region.
Zeinab holds an M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry Synthesis (GUC) and is pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Pharmaco-economics. She co-authored a systematic review in BMC Pediatrics (2024) and won second place in an ASHP-published research competition. Her expertise spans pharmacovigilance, clinical trial appraisal, and biostatistics, further enhanced by training from King’s College London and the Arab Pharmaceutical Affairs Academy.
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