Medical science liaison vs scientist

The differences between medical science liaisons and scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a medical science liaison and a scientist. Additionally, a medical science liaison has an average salary of $145,718, which is higher than the $97,344 average annual salary of a scientist.

The top three skills for a medical science liaison include patients, medical affairs and MSL. The most important skills for a scientist are chemistry, data analysis, and patients.

Medical science liaison vs scientist overview

	Medical Science Liaison	Scientist
Yearly salary	$145,718	$97,344
Hourly rate	$70.06	$46.80
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	57,208	62,467
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	4	4

What does a medical science liaison do?

A medical science liaison (MSL) is a scientific professional who facilitates a working relationship between healthcare companies and leading physicians, researchers, and clinicians. Also referred to as key opinion leaders (KOL), medical science liaisons represent their company to the decision-makers in the medical community as well as to investors and government regulatory agencies. They analyze clinical trends and monitor the scientific literature for new developments in the medical community. Medical science liaisons also prepare medical samples and data to investigate the causes of chronic diseases, pathogens, and toxicity.

What does a scientist do?

A scientist is responsible for researching and analyzing the nature and complexities of the physical world to identify discoveries that would improve people's lives and ignite scientific knowledge for society. Scientists' duties differ in their different areas of expertise, but all of them must have a broad comprehension of scientific disciplines and methods to support their experiments and investigations. They collect the sample for their research, record findings, create research proposals, and release publications. A scientist must know how to utilize laboratory equipment to support the study and drive results efficiently and accurately.

Medical science liaison vs scientist salary

Medical science liaisons and scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medical Science Liaison	Scientist
Average salary	$145,718	$97,344
Salary range	Between $59,000 And $359,000	Between $67,000 And $140,000
Highest paying City	Jackson, TN	Redwood City, CA
Highest paying state	Tennessee	California
Best paying company	Saint Luke's Health System	Airbnb
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Technology

Differences between medical science liaison and scientist education

There are a few differences between a medical science liaison and a scientist in terms of educational background:

	Medical Science Liaison	Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Nursing	Chemistry
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Medical science liaison vs scientist demographics

Here are the differences between medical science liaisons' and scientists' demographics:

	Medical Science Liaison	Scientist
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 41.6% Female, 58.4%	Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 23.4% White, 56.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between medical science liaison and scientist duties and responsibilities

Medical science liaison example responsibilities.

Supervise and analyze medical necessity review of manage care appeals.
Develop and manage KOLs resulting in presentations to regional, national and international meetings.
Utilize extensive knowledge of medical terminology, ICD-9, HCPCS and CPT coding along with analysis and processing of Medicare claims.
Provide pre-launch field support for a novel diabetes compound.
Provide drug information to medical professionals and sales force within FDA guidelines.
Join Clementine as a trainee BMS and successfully complete training and registration.

Scientist example responsibilities.

Lead a cross-functional team to return an HIV combination product to market on random-access instrument.
Design the VERIS HIV-1 quantitative PCR assay which achieve Conformit Europ enne (CE) marking.
Manage an elemental analytical laboratory that include operating, maintaining and troubleshooting an ICP-OES, ICPMS, MXRF, and IC.
Develop and manage third party claim investigations and contractor remedial oversight for various insurance companies.
Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
Manage sample inventory via in-house laboratory information management system (LIMS) and implement additional systems for sample and chemical organization.

Medical science liaison vs scientist skills

Common medical science liaison skills

Patients, 11%
Medical Affairs, 9%
MSL, 7%
Medical Science, 6%
Pharmaceutical Industry, 5%
Internal Stakeholders, 4%

Common scientist skills

Chemistry, 9%
Data Analysis, 7%
Patients, 7%
Molecular Biology, 4%
Cell Culture, 4%
Java, 3%

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Medical Science Liaison
Medical Science Liaison vs Scientist

Updated January 8, 2025

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