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It’s mainly because oncology clients can be insufferably arrogant about how unique and special HCP marketing in oncology is and they don’t want to bring on team members they’ll have to train up . The reality is I’ve worked in HCP oncology and while there’s a substantial knowledge base you’d have to assimilate to get brought up to speed, it’s not really that different from other HCP categories. If you’ve done HCP work in other areas you may be able to talk yourself into the role.
I once encountered a client who not only insisted that all team members have oncology experience but also insisted that it be immuno-oncology experience. But certainly that’s not the norm in HCP. It was weird and imo misguided even for oncology HCP.
I think also burnout and turnover is a huge issue. If you are truly looking to be a writer or AD, it’s not for you. You’ll mostly be making charts and affirming data. Rarely do you get to influence the story. Yes, onc concept is sort of fun, but the larger agency will do that. And, in my experience, when you’re on onc, you spend a lot more time with the client. Going to ASCO and ESMO and whatnot. That is fun, until you’re sitting across the table from the guy who invented the biologic and you have to say something, anything he’ll respond to. When I was younger, my EVP insisted on going to meet the client in Switzerland. She asked a room full of people what “PFS” means. That’s a fuck up you cannot afford. Had another (now CCO of a major agency!) ask why we can’t make the KM-curves go up because it’s depressing to think about all those deaths.
You spend a lot of time with the most boring, myopic, academics you’ve ever imagined. It’s intimidating as hell. And...and!... even the people who can do it, so few of them can cobble together a coherent story it is amazing. The people who excel at it are usually not someone you’d want to spend time with. You have to accept it is really really difficult to be happy doing it.
On the other hand, you know... saving lives making a difference advancing humanity... kinda cool
Counter point: I got hired in my first pharma job because I was funny and they felt I could “breath life into the concepts.”
Made a whole career of it.
At my agency, we are offered a preceptorship with a hem/onc resident at the local hospital to learn as much as we an about cancer management before writing on an oncology brand. It's a lot of jargon, and you either catch on or you don't. Some brand assignments are better to make the transition, like dermatology or ophthalmic. Even diagnostic tests, radiology equipment. You gotta love science though if you're going to enjoy doing this.
That sounds like a great agency. Can I ask which it is?
Not specifically about onc, but I think for all HCP writing having a graduate degree in the sciences provides a great deal of familiarity and training with the syntax, rhythm, and jargon of medical writing. The audience is made of trained professionals who read and write that jargon for a living. In many disease areas there is less jargon, and one can pull off HCP writing without formal experience, but onco writing is very data and technical term heavy. For example, it helps if you have already heard the term "signal transduction" and are not trying to figure it out by Googling "transduction."
It is not impossible to do, so don't give up hope; but very difficult to convince someone in a half hour interview that you can do it if you don't have the experience.
this is a very good way in, but fwiw I’ve built a career in oncology and my degrees are in English. I picked it up just like any other style and diction, and learned and continue to learn the necessary vocabulary as a matter of course. fluency acquisition is absolutely a core skill set in oncology because honestly everything changes every few years anyway. i’m twenty years in and continually learning new science. it keeps life interesting.