FAQs

The course was developed by the Education Board of the Pharmaceutical Licensing Group UK Ltd (PLG), the professional association for people involved in business development and licensing. The PLG has been running professional training courses since 1994 and the development of a distance learning formal qualification was a natural development from its Introductory and Masterclass training courses.

The PLG Education Board, consists of Professor Bill Dawson [previously Technology Acquisition Director of Lilly], Roger Davies [formerly Business Development Director at Bioglan and Mundipharma] and Sharon Finch [CEO Medius Associates Ltd]. The design of the Units involved broad consultation with both academics and industry major pharma companies such as AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer et al. Once the course outline had been designated, specialist Unit leaders from industry and the profession were appointed to write and teach the precise content of each Unit.

Students have two options, either to register with the University of Manchester to study for a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or Msc, or purchase individual units for CPD (Continual Professional Development) via the PLG Masters website.

Yes, purchase of an individual Unit has the same teaching support as for Units purchased for a University qualification.

If working towards a Certificate, Diploma or full MSc. as a student registered with the University of Manchester, the student intake is in April and October each year.

Purchase of individual Units for CPD can be made at any time.

It is anticipated that each Unit can take approx four [4] months to complete, however it could be possible to finish the entire eight [8] Units in two years and then there is the additional 600 hour project (dissertation) required to complete the MSc. There is a time limit of 9 months to submit Formal Assignments and 1 year to complete the Unit (including marking); 4 years to complete the Diploma (8 Units); and 5 years for the complete MSc.

The course materials are available for all students on the PLG Masters website as pdf documents, with supporting materials in Microsoft Excel, Word or Powerpoint files. Students registered with the UoM also receive a printed workbook.

Students will have access to the Unit support materials on the PLG Masters website, including access to the PLG Library for reference materials. Students registered with the University of Manchester also have access to the University of Manchester library.

Directed Learning and direct contact hours have been arranged to take account of the fact that most people will be studying on a distance basis. There are seventy [70] hours directed learning achieved via studying the course Unit materials [hard copy files and CDs], there is then a further seventy [70] hours private study required for reading around the subject matter, private research and the time required to complete the assignments.

The assignments will vary from Unit to Unit, reflecting the nature of the subject but all assignments will be relevant to day-to-day business development and licensing activities. Direct contact time will be in the form of 3-4 hour teleconference calls with tutors of individual Units. In addition there are annual workshops for the individual Units, held in London usually during the first week of December.

Access to study is open to all. There are no special entry requirements if you want to study just individual Units as part of your personal development programme.

All Units require some work and experience within the industry of not less than 3 years.

To study for a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or the MSc degree you should have a relevant degree level qualification. If you do not already have the required qualifications, you can join this programme when you have proved your ability by earning four Unit credits.

Students whose first language is not English require a minimum IELTS overall score 6.5 and 6.0 in writing, or TOEFL 575 (paper-based) 230 (computer-based) or 90 (internet based).Is CPD required in business development and licensing?