Medical Representative Qualification: Eligibility, Qualification, Skills Required and Salary 2023

Medical representatives form a direct link between pharmaceutical companies and their customers who happen to be doctors and pharmacists. Medical representatives are brand ambassadors for medical companies. It is essential for an MR to possess a broad knowledge of medicines as well as to be well-versed in sales and marketing.

To begin with, a career that allows you to put a foot in the medical field and another in the business world can be interesting as well as fun. The pay scale of a Medical Representative is comparatively high if the turn-out is good. The job also comes with opportunities to travel for business purposes.

A basic medical representative qualification for entry-level will be a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy or a Bachelor of Science degree in any pharmacy or related major. A master’s degree in Pharmacy or a related field can be a more valuable qualification for senior roles. Check: M Pharmacy

Alongside formal education, key skills such as confidence, communication skills, sales and negotiation skills, and a keen interest in medicines play a major role in this career path.

Table of Contents

Who is a Medical Representative
Medical Representative Eligibility Criteria
Educational Qualifications Required for Medical Representative
Skills Required to Become a Medical Representative
Salary of a Medical Representative in India
Medical Representative Qualification: FAQs

Who is a Medical Representative?

Medical Representatives are sales and marketing professionals who promote medical products manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.

Medical Sales Representative or Pharmaceutical Sales Representative pitch new products and promote existing products to healthcare professionals such as doctors and pharmacists.
With broad knowledge in the field of biology and life sciences, an MR should be persuasive and influential, who can help a company expand throughout the market.
Exceptional customer service is a part of the job profile. An MR plays a major role in the growth of any pharmaceutical company.
The field of medicines is ever advancing. Not just the growing demand for medicine but also with the advancement in biotechnology, cutting-edge medical equipment is being manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.
There needs to be a medium, connecting the producer and the market in need. The scope for a career as a Medical Representative is extensive.
However, before starting a career in this field one should know what the job demands and if one will be able to comply with the turn-out demand of a company.
The pay scale of a medical sales professional mostly depends on the company they work for.
The average salary of a junior level medical representative is around INR 25,000 per month and at the senior level the average salary is INR 85,000 in India.

Medical Representative Eligibility Criteria

Students who want to build a career as a medical representative must have passed the 12th standard or 10+2 or equivalent with subjects: Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The aggregate score in the three subjects being a minimum of 50% marks.

Almost all pharmaceutical companies hire graduates for the role of junior-level medical representative.
Aspirants must hold at least a Bachelor’s degree in Science, B Pharma or Bachelor in Pharmacy is the most preferred MR qualification.
Students having BSc degrees in relevant fields are also eligible for medical representative posts.
At the senior level, a candidate should preferably hold a Master’s degree in Pharmacy or Science to be fit to get the higher job profiles.
There are various entrance examinations for students who want to pursue undergraduate degrees in the field of Pharmacy or other courses relevant for MR qualification.
National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Joint Entrance Exam (NIPER JEE) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) are the national level entrance examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the pharmaceutical field respectively.
Some other state-level entrance tests conducted by the pharmacy institutes all across the country are Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Pharmacy (OJEE Pharmacy), AP EAMCET Pharmacy, MET Pharmacy, CG PPHT, NMIMS NPAT, etc.

Check:

NMIMS NPAT	MET Pharmacy

Educational Qualifications Required for Medical Representative

Companies recruiting medical representatives essentially look for candidates with Bachelor’s degrees.
Bachelor of Pharmacy is the most preferred medical representative qualification.
Bachelor’s degree in Science is also preferred for entry-level medical representative job qualification.
There are various BSc programmes relevant to the field of pharmacy.
To start a career in the field a Master’s degree is not mandatory.
However, senior-level job profiles demand higher education for medical representative job qualifications.
A Master of Pharmacy or an MSc degree in a relevant field is suitable educational qualifications to land in senior medical sales manager positions.

Medical Representative Qualification	Specializations
Bachelor of Pharmacy (B Pharm)	Industrial Pharmacy
	Clinical Pharmacy
	Biopharmaceutics
	Pharmacognosy
Master of Pharmacy (M Pharm)	Industrial Pharmacy
	Clinical Pharmacy
	Biopharmaceutics
	Pharmacognosy
Bachelor of Science (BSc)	Pharmacy
Bachelor of Science (BSc)	Pharmacology and Toxicology
Master of Science (MSc)	Pharmacy
Master of Science (MSc)	Pharmacology

Skills Required to Become a Medical Representative

Just educational qualification is not enough for responsibility in any professional field. It is important to be well-versed in the intellectual aspect of the job.

However, more essential are the skills that will help one make better use of the knowledge.
Being a successful Medical Representative will require good marketing skills, customer handling skills, confidence, communication skills, negotiation, problem-solving skills and many more.

Sales and Marketing	Physically Resilient
Confidence	Communication Skills
Customer Service	Time Organisation
Negotiation Skill	General Awareness

Check: MPharm Pharmaceutics

Salary of a Medical Representative in India

A medical representative, at the entry-level, receives a monthly salary of INR 25,000 on average.
The salary of an MR depends strictly on the company they work for and also on the role they play in the company.
For example, an experienced senior medical sales manager receives a higher salary, as high as INR 87,000 on average.

Years of Experience	Average Monthly Salary
Fresher (0-1 year)	INR 25,000
Mid Level (2-8 years)	INR 56,000
Senior Level (8+ years)	INR 87,000

Medical Representative Qualification: FAQs

Ques. What qualities should a medical representative have?

Ans. A good medical representative should be able to hold a good conversation. They should have good knowledge of sales and marketing. An MR should be confident, resilient and punctual.

Ques. What is a medical representative qualification?

Ans. To become a medical representative one must have completed their 12th standard or equivalent with Physics, Chemistry and Biology. A Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy or B. Sc. degree in a relevant field is a must to become a medical representative.

Ques. What do medical representatives do?

Ans. Medical Representatives promote the products like medicines and medical equipment manufactured by pharmaceutical companies. They travel to meet potential customers like doctors and pharmacists to sell products and make deals.

Ques. What is a medical representative salary?

Ans. A medical representative salary might vary in the range of INR 25,000 - INR 85,000 depending on the experience and employer.

Ques. What are the entrance exams to be a medical representative?

Ans. There are no Entrance Exams for medical representative jobs. However, some companies might conduct aptitude tests as a part of the recruitment process.

Ques. What is the scope of a medical representative career?

Ans. With cutting-edge new medical products a career in this field has a lot of scopes. Many popular pharmaceutical companies are actively recruiting. Experienced medical representatives have a more important role.

Ques. Is the medical representative role gender specific?

Ans. No. Men, women or any other gender can do well in this field irrespective of gender, given that they are mentally as well as physically resilient.

Ques. What companies hire medical representatives?

Ans. Abbott, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Mankind Pharma, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Cipla, Lupin and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals are some of the top companies that hire medical representatives.

Ques. How long is the medical representative course?

Ans. Medical representative courses can be of 3 to 6 months long or it can be 1 year long depending upon the type of course chosen.

Ques. Is a medical representative career good?

Ans. The medical representative job can be very good if one has the required skills and determination, the job provides exposure to build your own business. If you do well in the field, you might easily get promoted to higher responsibilities in no time.