CAREERS AND RECRUITMENT
Fourth-quarter biotech job picture
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© 2016 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Michael Francisco The fourth quarter of 2015 saw the typical slowing down of pharma and biotech workforce activity reflecting the end of the year. Of note, in October Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA) announced plans to cut nearly 900 of its 8,000 employees and eliminate some programs in order to push higher-priority candidates through its clinical pipeline as well as increasing marketing for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera. Biogen expects the moves will save $250 million annually. Tokyo-based drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo said it will cut up to 1,200 positions from its US commercial operations and restructure the
able 1 Who’s hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest T biotech companies Companya Monsanto Amgen CSL WuXi PharmaTech bioMerieux PerkinElmer Bio-Rad Laboratories Biogen Biocon Gilead Sciences IDEXX Laboratories Novozymes Celgene Endo Pharmaceuticals Shire Qiagen Illumina Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Actelion Alexion Pharmaceuticals Biotest Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals BioMarin Pharmaceutical CK Life Sciences AMRI Total
Number of employees 22,400 17,900 12,196 8,837 8,379 7,700 7,600 7,550 7,310 7,000 6,400 6,267 6,012 5,062 5,016 4,339 3,700 2,925
Number of advertised openingsb Monster LinkedIn Naturejobs 334 204 0 753 239 17 1,000+ 56 0 10 27 0 2 11 0 7 29 0 152 134 0 204 198 0 0 0 0 1 284 0 80 125 0 1 4 0 215 99 133 90 24 0 549 289 0 52 76 0 260 280 0 199 288 0
2,493 2,273
4 164
6 74
1 0
2,158
0
0
0
1,830
246
179
0
1,681
168
27
0
1,675 1,668
0 138 4,629+
0 67 2,720
0 0 151
aAs defined in Nature Biotechnology’s survey of public companies (33, 703–709, 2015). bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 January 2016. Jobs may overlap.
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY VOLUME 34 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2016
rganization with a greater emphasis on customer-facing roles to preo pare for the launching of new products from its pipeline in cardiology, cancer, fibromyalgia and pain. Advertised biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector jobs in the job databases tracked by Nature Biotechnology during the fourth quarter of 2015 are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Other downsizings within the life science industry are shown in Table 3. Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companies Number of employees Novartis 133,413 Johnson & Johnson 126,500 Sanofi 113,496 GlaxoSmithKline 98,702 Roche 88,509 Pfizer 78,300 Abbott Laboratories 77,000 Merck & Co. 70,000 AstraZeneca 57,500 Teva Pharmaceutical 43,009 Total
Companya
Number of advertised openingsb Monster 1,000+ 1,000+ 379 107 367 1,000+ 484 534 479
LinkedIn 1,008 1,096 735 754 18 67 357 12 284
Naturejobs 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 4
270 5,620+
314 4,645
0 8
aData
obtained from Statista. bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 January 2016. Jobs may overlap.
Table 3 Selected biotech and pharma downsizings Number of Company employees cut Details Arena 80 Will reduce its US workforce by 35%, to Pharmaceuticals approximately 149, because of lowerthan-expected sales of obesity drug Belviq (lorcaserin), which is partnered with Eisai Co. Ltd. Stem Cells Inc. 16 Will reduce headcount by 23%, to 57, to focus on developing human neural stem cells to treat chronic spinal cord injury. Threshold 40–50 Will reduce headcount by 66%, to 20–25, Pharmaceuticals after discontinuing development of evofosfamide with partner Merck KGaA. Turing NA Will reduce its headcount to streamline Pharmaceuticals operations. In December, Martin Shkreli resigned as CEO after the FBI arrested him on securities fraud charges. Source: BioCentury. NA, not available.
Michael Francisco is a Senior Editor at Nature Biotechnology.
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Fourth-quarter biotech job picture
npg
© 2016 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Michael Francisco The fourth quarter of 2015 saw the typical slowing down of pharma and biotech workforce activity reflecting the end of the year. Of note, in October Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA) announced plans to cut nearly 900 of its 8,000 employees and eliminate some programs in order to push higher-priority candidates through its clinical pipeline as well as increasing marketing for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera. Biogen expects the moves will save $250 million annually. Tokyo-based drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo said it will cut up to 1,200 positions from its US commercial operations and restructure the
able 1 Who’s hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest T biotech companies Companya Monsanto Amgen CSL WuXi PharmaTech bioMerieux PerkinElmer Bio-Rad Laboratories Biogen Biocon Gilead Sciences IDEXX Laboratories Novozymes Celgene Endo Pharmaceuticals Shire Qiagen Illumina Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Actelion Alexion Pharmaceuticals Biotest Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals BioMarin Pharmaceutical CK Life Sciences AMRI Total
Number of employees 22,400 17,900 12,196 8,837 8,379 7,700 7,600 7,550 7,310 7,000 6,400 6,267 6,012 5,062 5,016 4,339 3,700 2,925
Number of advertised openingsb Monster LinkedIn Naturejobs 334 204 0 753 239 17 1,000+ 56 0 10 27 0 2 11 0 7 29 0 152 134 0 204 198 0 0 0 0 1 284 0 80 125 0 1 4 0 215 99 133 90 24 0 549 289 0 52 76 0 260 280 0 199 288 0
2,493 2,273
4 164
6 74
1 0
2,158
0
0
0
1,830
246
179
0
1,681
168
27
0
1,675 1,668
0 138 4,629+
0 67 2,720
0 0 151
aAs defined in Nature Biotechnology’s survey of public companies (33, 703–709, 2015). bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 January 2016. Jobs may overlap.
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY VOLUME 34 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2016
rganization with a greater emphasis on customer-facing roles to preo pare for the launching of new products from its pipeline in cardiology, cancer, fibromyalgia and pain. Advertised biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector jobs in the job databases tracked by Nature Biotechnology during the fourth quarter of 2015 are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Other downsizings within the life science industry are shown in Table 3. Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companies Number of employees Novartis 133,413 Johnson & Johnson 126,500 Sanofi 113,496 GlaxoSmithKline 98,702 Roche 88,509 Pfizer 78,300 Abbott Laboratories 77,000 Merck & Co. 70,000 AstraZeneca 57,500 Teva Pharmaceutical 43,009 Total
Companya
Number of advertised openingsb Monster 1,000+ 1,000+ 379 107 367 1,000+ 484 534 479
LinkedIn 1,008 1,096 735 754 18 67 357 12 284
Naturejobs 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 4
270 5,620+
314 4,645
0 8
aData
obtained from Statista. bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 January 2016. Jobs may overlap.
Table 3 Selected biotech and pharma downsizings Number of Company employees cut Details Arena 80 Will reduce its US workforce by 35%, to Pharmaceuticals approximately 149, because of lowerthan-expected sales of obesity drug Belviq (lorcaserin), which is partnered with Eisai Co. Ltd. Stem Cells Inc. 16 Will reduce headcount by 23%, to 57, to focus on developing human neural stem cells to treat chronic spinal cord injury. Threshold 40–50 Will reduce headcount by 66%, to 20–25, Pharmaceuticals after discontinuing development of evofosfamide with partner Merck KGaA. Turing NA Will reduce its headcount to streamline Pharmaceuticals operations. In December, Martin Shkreli resigned as CEO after the FBI arrested him on securities fraud charges. Source: BioCentury. NA, not available.
Michael Francisco is a Senior Editor at Nature Biotechnology.
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