Yuri Klyachkin received his PhD in Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics from the University of Kentucky where he studied mechanisms of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 glycoprotein L folding, trafficking, and its role in virus entry and dissemination of infection. After completing a postdoc, he secured an NIH T32 fellowship in Clinical Scholars in Cardiovascular Science to continue his academic research work. Faced with the decision whether to continue striving for an academic lab or transition career paths, Yuri pivoted towards medical science liaison positions. He has worked at multiple companies as an MSL specializing in inflammation and immunology, including Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Celgene and is currently the Medical Director of Global Medical Affairs at Amgen. 

Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field? 

My bachelor’s degree was in Biology from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana in 2000. I worked for a bit, then started my PhD in 2003. It was one of the first interdisciplinary programs where you could rotate in 5-6 departments, and upon choosing a lab, that’s the department you joined. So I joined the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular genetics at University of Kentucky School of Medicine. My thesis focused on immunology, virology, and cell biology, specifically how viruses interact with cells. I’ve always been interested in viruses and was inspired by the book The Hot Zone and movie Outbreak. Pretty cliche stuff. I was always fascinated by pandemics, as ironic as it is, so I pursued that field. 

How did you find this particular position, and what was the hiring process like? Is there a typical structure for this in your field? 

I was in academia for a while, and was a postdoc for 4-5 years. My goal was to become a professor and start my own lab. I was having difficulty acquiring K99s, fellowship grants, and funding lines were difficult to acquire. I was starting to feel discouraged and decided to pursue a career outside of academia. I had to find out what I was good at and what I liked. I did not like to write or the process of writing, or bench work, or animal work. Scientist positions in industry were out of the question. I liked presenting and discussing science and public speaking, which helped me narrow my career choices down to medical science liaison (MSL). In 2014, I pursued MSL through networking and learning more about the role and the language people use for these positions. In summer of 2015, I became an MSL through networking and my initial position was a contract position. I eventually switched jobs to a permanent position at a different company. 

There is a pretty standard hiring process for MSLs. It starts with a half hour phone call with the recruiter, then a half hour phone call with the hiring manager who would be your director or person to report to, they ask behavioral and experience questions, get to know your personality and scientific background and see if it fits the role. They then decide if you can attend an on-site/in-person interview, where you’d meet at the company headquarters or at a  conference. There, you’d meet 5-6 people on the team at all levels which would include the hiring manager, their director, HR, to-be colleagues, and many others. They’ll ask similar questions as the phone interviews, mostly behavioral in nature like how do you work in teams, what were some projects that were difficult for you to complete, how have you leveraged relationships, why do you want to become an MSL, what would make you a good MSL, why do you want to work for this company, etc. At the end of the interview, you’ll present on a topic for 15 minutes and have 5 minutes for questions. The presentation topic varies and can sometimes be whatever you want or a journal article for a journal club style. If they extend an offer, then you’ll spend some days going back and forth to negotiate on conditions and details. 

Can you tell us about your current responsibilities? What is a typical day or week like in your role?

I recently switched positions from being an MSL, which I had to maintain and foster key opinion leader relationships. Key opinion leaders were top physicians in the field I covered, which was dermatology and rheumatology, who run clinical trials, publish often, and speak at conferences. It was a selective list of thought leaders in my territory, which was the Midwest, and this included 5 states and 45 people on the list. There were roughly 2-3 people per state per specialty for me to run ideas by, get feedback on data, and set up collaborations on projects or publications they want to submit. 

I became Medical Director of the U.S. and Global Medical Affairs Department at Amgen. This role is a more internal role, as opposed to MSL which is more external facing. I primarily design strategies on how to best position our assets within the competitive landscape, such as how we make our drug look better than other drugs we’re competing with through clinical trials and scientific publications. It’s a very strategic role that I find is very exciting. I’m still fairly new to the role so I’m learning a lot, but no one day is alike. Sometimes I’m at advisory boards or workshops to break down our competitors to see how their messaging and how their data would cut into our messaging. Some days, I’ll be in conferences with Europe or Japan trying to identify their needs and how we can help them. The overarching principle here is strategy and combining expertise in knowledge of the competitive landscape on drugs and therapeutic areas. During the pandemic, it’s been non-stop virtual calls. Post-pandemic, there will probably be more travel, going to congresses and meetings with select groups and key opinion leaders on our strategy and messaging. 

What do you enjoy about your current job and work environment? 

I enjoy that we’re contributing to improving patients lives by positioning the drug and improving access to the drug for our patients. I’m also involved in our company’s COVID-19 response, with a few trials of pipeline assets we have. It’s an exciting time to work on a market agnostic project to alleviate this healthcare crisis and pandemic, it’s very collaborative and rewarding right now. 

What are some of the challenging aspects of your job? Is there anything you wish you had known about your job or industry before joining?

The challenging aspect is that the pace is really fast, so you have to organize and manage your time well, otherwise it’s very easy to fall behind. As an MSL, I’d get 5-7 emails a day, but now I get 50 times that. I have to triage what drops on my plate and prioritize projects and requests. As you start, everything seems important, but my mentors have helped me identify what really needs my attention. The learning curve for interviewing was steep for me, so I think it would have been better to network more to be more prepared for interviews, but once you do a couple, you know what it’s like and the rest are straightforward. 

Do you have any professional plans for the future? What are some future career paths that could open up for someone in your position, 5-10 years down the road?

I’d continue to seek an internal position, and my prospects are good to move up to become Medical Affairs lead, eventually get to VP level, or be in charge of the entire Medical Affairs department, so sky’s the limit. But since I’m currently on the medical side, I can go over to the marketing or business and sales side, where I combine scientific acumen and expertise with forecasting profits. 

What’s changing in your industry? Are there any future trends we should be aware of?

PhDs are being more valued in the industry, and academic prospects are more scarce, so the hiring is up across the board. I find working in industry to be more rewarding accompanied by a balanced lifestyle and better pay. There used to be a stigma for joining industry (being a sell-out) but even former tenured academics have left to join industry at some capacity. The science is very robust in industry and we collaborate significantly with academia to progress translational research and improve new therapies and compounds. The process for translational projects used to take many years, but now it’s much shorter. From talking to colleagues, I get the sense that the balance is shifting towards industry, and not just in drug development, but also in research. 

What activities, internships, or organizations would you recommend someone get involved with to help them break into this field?

The field for a MSL is based around clinical science and data, so I’d recommend shadowing and getting involved in clinical trial programs at your institution. You can find PIs at clinicaltrials.gov for whatever therapeutic area you are interested in. My initial suggestion is to narrow down which therapeutic area you would like to be an MSL in. They’re all over the place, cancer, rare diseases, etc. Once you identify your interest, then you can tailor the job search and your training experiences to that particular position. Identify a PI that’s involved in clinical trials, shadow them, talk to them, attend grand rounds, which is a great item to list on a resume. In the field, MSLs are encouraged to regularly attend grand rounds and learn about clinical trials and drug development processes. 

Organizations, courses, and societies are not worth the money. But if it promotes networking to help you plug in, that would be the ideal environment to land a MSL role. Learn about the role and get an idea of what their day to day is like. Gain more familiarity and be prepared for interviews for these positions. 

Is it common for people in your field to have a scientific/academic background (i.e. have PhDs)? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages someone with a PhD might experience while pursuing or working in your field?

For new MSLs, a new requirement at a lot of companies is to have a “D” degree, so M.D., D.O., or PhD. That higher level of education is typically required. Some MSLs are nurse practitioners or P.A. or bachelors level, but that’s increasingly rare as teams consist of PhDs. I’d estimate the MSL field to be 45% PhDs, 45% PharmDs, and the rest are M.D., D.O., and P.A. 

Do you have any final words of advice for those navigating these career questions? Is there anything you would have done differently given what you know now? 

Network! That is the key. It provides many advantages so you can learn about the role, the language professionals speak, get different interviews from each person with different geographies, pipelines, projects, and experiences. The more people you talk to, the more informed you’ll be. You’ll have clean answers for why you want to join the MSL field. I wish I had networked more, started earlier, identified a field earlier, and what career I’d like to pursue.  Once you hyper-focus on a therapeutic area and career choice, the process becomes simpler and you can target your efforts towards your goal. 

While initial MSL roles may be harder to break into, don’t discount contract MSL roles. They are fairly abundant and are advertised on LinkedIn, TMAC, Trinet Pharma, BESTMSLs, etc. As a contract MSL, you would be hired to carry out a project for a limited amount of time. This is a great way to get initial MSL experience, and then recruiters will notice your experience and you can typically transition to a permanent role.