Medicinal chemist vs senior research chemist

The differences between medicinal chemists and senior research chemists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a senior research chemist has an average salary of $95,520, 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 senior research chemist are R, chemistry, and product development.

Medicinal chemist vs senior research chemist overview

	Medicinal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Yearly salary	$65,248	$95,520
Hourly rate	$31.37	$45.92
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	2,662	55,511
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	-	-

Medicinal chemist vs senior research chemist salary

Medicinal chemists and senior research chemists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medicinal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Average salary	$65,248	$95,520
Salary range	Between $44,000 And $96,000	Between $69,000 And $130,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Delaware	Washington
Best paying company	Novartis	Crunchbase
Best paying industry	-	Pharmaceutical

Differences between medicinal chemist and senior research chemist education

There are a few differences between a medicinal chemist and a senior research chemist in terms of educational background:

	Medicinal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Medicinal chemist vs senior research chemist demographics

Here are the differences between medicinal chemists' and senior research chemists' demographics:

	Medicinal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 80.5% Female, 19.5%	Male, 79.1% Female, 20.9%
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, 6.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 27.5% White, 52.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between medicinal chemist and senior research 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.

Senior research chemist example responsibilities.

Manage an analytical laboratory, which include SEM-EDS, GC-MS, GPC, FT-IR, ICP-MS, TGA and DSC equipment.
Conduct HPLC analysis of two main products to support equivalency programs.
Establish the fast HPLC column screening system and serve as super user.
Calculate amounts of unknown components of a distillation bottoms mixture using NMR.
Train over twenty plant operators and scientists to use the FTIR system.
Act as leading analyst to provide analytical services to several GMP API productions.

Medicinal chemist vs senior research chemist skills

Common medicinal chemist skills

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

Common senior research chemist skills

R, 16%
Chemistry, 14%
Product Development, 8%
Analytical Laboratory, 6%
Organic Synthesis, 4%
Polymer, 4%

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Medicinal Chemist
Medicinal Chemist vs Senior Research Chemist

Updated January 8, 2025

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