Medicinal chemist vs product development chemist

The differences between medicinal chemists and product development chemists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a product development chemist has an average salary of $73,084, which is higher than the $65,248 average annual salary of a medicinal chemist.

The top three skills for a medicinal chemist include NMR, SAR and HPLC. The most important skills for a product development chemist are lab equipment, product development, and analytical methods.

Medicinal chemist vs product development chemist overview

	Medicinal Chemist	Product Development Chemist
Yearly salary	$65,248	$73,084
Hourly rate	$31.37	$35.14
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	2,662	109,244
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 81%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	-	-

Medicinal chemist vs product development chemist salary

Medicinal chemists and product development chemists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medicinal Chemist	Product Development Chemist
Average salary	$65,248	$73,084
Salary range	Between $44,000 And $96,000	Between $51,000 And $103,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Vacaville, CA
Highest paying state	Delaware	Washington
Best paying company	Novartis	Cargill
Best paying industry	-	Manufacturing

Differences between medicinal chemist and product development chemist education

There are a few differences between a medicinal chemist and a product development chemist in terms of educational background:

	Medicinal Chemist	Product Development Chemist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 81%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	University of Southern California

Medicinal chemist vs product development chemist demographics

Here are the differences between medicinal chemists' and product development chemists' demographics:

	Medicinal Chemist	Product Development Chemist
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 80.5% Female, 19.5%	Male, 61.6% Female, 38.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.8% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 26.8% White, 52.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 8.2% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 18.1% White, 59.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between medicinal chemist and product development chemist duties and responsibilities

Medicinal chemist example responsibilities.

Achieve expertise with hydrogenations and catalysts, low temp reactions, TLC, reactions done with UV and infrare lights.
Produce inactive analogues of drug candidates for PK/PD comparison with API compounds.
Analyze compound purity using LCMS and NMR spectroscopy.
Develop and optimize protocols on HPLC, LC-MS and other analytical instruments.
Publish two patents for drug synthesis process and utilize this process to produce over 100 drug candidates.
Contribute to SAR development for projects.

Product development chemist example responsibilities.

Lead a collaboration with another biotechnology company to design ELISAs for the purpose of evaluating novel reagents.
Execute HPLC method development and method validation to provide data toward supporting specification, and testing of reference materials.
Write and review work instructions and maintain ISO paperwork.
Develop and implement CAPA as an outcome of investigations.
Create validation protocols, OOS reports and final reports for test methods.
Authore and revise operating procedures to reflect changes in the testing methods to comply with ISO requirements.

Medicinal chemist vs product development chemist skills

Common medicinal chemist skills

NMR, 19%
SAR, 14%
HPLC, 14%
Organic Synthesis, 10%
LC-MS, 8%
Drug Discovery, 5%

Common product development chemist skills

Lab Equipment, 10%
Product Development, 8%
Analytical Methods, 7%
HPLC, 5%
QC, 5%
Test Methods, 5%

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Medicinal Chemist
Medicinal Chemist vs Product Development Chemist

Updated January 8, 2025

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