careers and recruitment
Second-quarter biotech job picture Michael Francisco
npg
© 2014 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
T
he number of advertised biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector jobs remained steady in the three job databases tracked by Nature Biotechnology (Tables 1 and 2). Compared with the first quarter of 2014 (Nat. Biotechnol. 32, 497; 2014), biotech listings on Monster and LinkedIn decreased slightly while pharma listings were mixed. Naturejobs saw an increase in both biotech and pharma listings. In June, Novo Nordisk announced a plan to hire 6,000 new employees in Denmark by 2022, half of whom will work in R&D. The company said the new jobs will create another 15,000 related jobs in the country, owing to the interaction between industry, public-sector research and education. Sinovac Biotech has been awarded an RMB60 million ($9.6 million) government grant to build a facility in China for production of vaccines against hand, foot and mouth disease. The funding will be provided in several tranches, with RMB20 million ($3.2 million) expected within the year. A new drug application for the vaccine is under review by China’s Food and Drug Administration. Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Labs will open an incubator facility to accommodate up to 50 emerging companies, called Janssen Labs @South San Francisco, by year’s end. The new incubator will join existing Janssen Labs in San Diego, San Francisco and Boston. Table 1 Who’s hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest biotech companies Number of advertised Companya
Number of employees
Monsanto
Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companies Number of advertised openingsb Companya
Number of employees
Monster
LinkedIn
Naturejobs
Novartis Johnson & Johnson
127,724 126,600
51 1,000+
54 1,632
8 2
Sanofi
111,974
272
150
3
GlaxoSmithKline
99,488
1
21
9
Pfizer
91,500
0
64
12
Abbott Laboratories
91,000
0
114
13
Merck & Co.
83,000
12
61
3
Roche
82,089
0
24
10 3
Bayer HealthCare
55,300
1
7
AstraZeneca
51,700
127
52
5
1,464
2,179
68
Total aData
obtained from FiercePharma. bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 July 2014. Jobs may overlap.
openingsb
Monster
LinkedIn
Naturejobs
21,500
0
10
0
Amgen
18,000
47
68
0
CSL
10,515
0
467
0
Life Technologies
10,000
0
1
0
PerkinElmer
7,500
46
36
0
Bio-Rad Laboratories
7,380
25
11
0
bioMerieux
7,285
41
19
0
WuXi PharmaTech
6,817
13
12
0
Biocon
6,253
0
0
0
Biogen Idec
5,950
0
42
0
Novozymes
5,865
0
7
0
IDEXX Laboratories
5,400
11
37
0
Shire
5,367
48
85
0
Gilead Sciences
5,000
0
51
1
Celgene
4,700
8
95
207
Endo Pharmaceuticals
4,629
0
16
0
Qiagen
3,999
0
3
4
Actelion
2,433
9
2
0
Illumina
2,400
17
38
3
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
2,200
0
12
0
Regeneron
1,950
0
50
30
Pharmaceuticals Biotest
1,727
0
44
0
Pharmaceuticals Alexion
1,373
0
69
0
Pharmaceuticals Albany Molecular
1,329
1
3
0
Research CK Life Sciences
1,278
0
0
0
266
1,178
245
Total
Finally, Qiagen has announced the closing of its Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA site by early 2015. It will invest an additional $10 million to upgrade its manufacturing facilities in Frederick and Germantown, Maryland, USA, bringing to $50 million the amount it has committed to its Maryland facilities over the past two years. Qiagen employs about 550 employees at the three sites. Other second-quarter downsizings in the life-science industry are shown in Table 3.
aAs
defined in Nature Biotechnology’s survey of public companies (31, 697–703; 2013). bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 July 2014. Jobs may overlap.
nature biotechnology volume 32 NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2014
Table 3 Selected biotech and pharma downsizings Company Aeterna Zentaris
Number of employees cut 25
Details Will reduce headcount to 65 full-time employees by year end as part of a program initiated earlier this year to
Affymax
3
streamline R&D. Affymax’s board has approved a plan to liquidate and dissolve the company. The company said the estimated shareholder payout is about $4 million, or “a few cents per share,” based on 37.5 million shares outstanding as
Biota
50
Pharmaceuticals
of 30 April 2014. Will reduce headcount by 67% to 25 and close its Melbourne, Australia facility by 30 June 2015. All of the cuts will come from Australia, and the remaining 10
Cytos Biotechnology
24
Australian employees will move to Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Will wind down key operational activities, particularly related to development and manufacturing of CVT003,
InVivo Therapeutics
14
Holdings Novartis
effective 31 July 2014. Will reduce headcount by 28% to 36 and will discontinue development of its hydrogel drug-delivery program,
NA
which was in an early stage of preclinical development. Will “significantly reduce” its internal discovery efforts in RNA therapeutics owing to “ongoing challenges with formulation and delivery and the reality that the current range of medically relevant targets where siRNA may be used is quite narrow.” Novartis has 26 full-time employees in its RNA therapeutics program.
Source: BioCentury. NA, not available
Michael Francisco is a Senior Editor at Nature Biotechnology.
843
Second-quarter biotech job picture Michael Francisco
npg
© 2014 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
T
he number of advertised biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector jobs remained steady in the three job databases tracked by Nature Biotechnology (Tables 1 and 2). Compared with the first quarter of 2014 (Nat. Biotechnol. 32, 497; 2014), biotech listings on Monster and LinkedIn decreased slightly while pharma listings were mixed. Naturejobs saw an increase in both biotech and pharma listings. In June, Novo Nordisk announced a plan to hire 6,000 new employees in Denmark by 2022, half of whom will work in R&D. The company said the new jobs will create another 15,000 related jobs in the country, owing to the interaction between industry, public-sector research and education. Sinovac Biotech has been awarded an RMB60 million ($9.6 million) government grant to build a facility in China for production of vaccines against hand, foot and mouth disease. The funding will be provided in several tranches, with RMB20 million ($3.2 million) expected within the year. A new drug application for the vaccine is under review by China’s Food and Drug Administration. Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Labs will open an incubator facility to accommodate up to 50 emerging companies, called Janssen Labs @South San Francisco, by year’s end. The new incubator will join existing Janssen Labs in San Diego, San Francisco and Boston. Table 1 Who’s hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest biotech companies Number of advertised Companya
Number of employees
Monsanto
Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companies Number of advertised openingsb Companya
Number of employees
Monster
Naturejobs
Novartis Johnson & Johnson
127,724 126,600
51 1,000+
54 1,632
8 2
Sanofi
111,974
272
150
3
GlaxoSmithKline
99,488
1
21
9
Pfizer
91,500
0
64
12
Abbott Laboratories
91,000
0
114
13
Merck & Co.
83,000
12
61
3
Roche
82,089
0
24
10 3
Bayer HealthCare
55,300
1
7
AstraZeneca
51,700
127
52
5
1,464
2,179
68
Total aData
obtained from FiercePharma. bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 July 2014. Jobs may overlap.
openingsb
Monster
Naturejobs
21,500
0
10
0
Amgen
18,000
47
68
0
CSL
10,515
0
467
0
Life Technologies
10,000
0
1
0
PerkinElmer
7,500
46
36
0
Bio-Rad Laboratories
7,380
25
11
0
bioMerieux
7,285
41
19
0
WuXi PharmaTech
6,817
13
12
0
Biocon
6,253
0
0
0
Biogen Idec
5,950
0
42
0
Novozymes
5,865
0
7
0
IDEXX Laboratories
5,400
11
37
0
Shire
5,367
48
85
0
Gilead Sciences
5,000
0
51
1
Celgene
4,700
8
95
207
Endo Pharmaceuticals
4,629
0
16
0
Qiagen
3,999
0
3
4
Actelion
2,433
9
2
0
Illumina
2,400
17
38
3
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
2,200
0
12
0
Regeneron
1,950
0
50
30
Pharmaceuticals Biotest
1,727
0
44
0
Pharmaceuticals Alexion
1,373
0
69
0
Pharmaceuticals Albany Molecular
1,329
1
3
0
Research CK Life Sciences
1,278
0
0
0
266
1,178
245
Total
Finally, Qiagen has announced the closing of its Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA site by early 2015. It will invest an additional $10 million to upgrade its manufacturing facilities in Frederick and Germantown, Maryland, USA, bringing to $50 million the amount it has committed to its Maryland facilities over the past two years. Qiagen employs about 550 employees at the three sites. Other second-quarter downsizings in the life-science industry are shown in Table 3.
aAs
defined in Nature Biotechnology’s survey of public companies (31, 697–703; 2013). bAs searched on Monster.com, LinkedIn.com and Naturejobs.com, 11 July 2014. Jobs may overlap.
nature biotechnology volume 32 NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2014
Table 3 Selected biotech and pharma downsizings Company Aeterna Zentaris
Number of employees cut 25
Details Will reduce headcount to 65 full-time employees by year end as part of a program initiated earlier this year to
Affymax
3
streamline R&D. Affymax’s board has approved a plan to liquidate and dissolve the company. The company said the estimated shareholder payout is about $4 million, or “a few cents per share,” based on 37.5 million shares outstanding as
Biota
50
Pharmaceuticals
of 30 April 2014. Will reduce headcount by 67% to 25 and close its Melbourne, Australia facility by 30 June 2015. All of the cuts will come from Australia, and the remaining 10
Cytos Biotechnology
24
Australian employees will move to Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Will wind down key operational activities, particularly related to development and manufacturing of CVT003,
InVivo Therapeutics
14
Holdings Novartis
effective 31 July 2014. Will reduce headcount by 28% to 36 and will discontinue development of its hydrogel drug-delivery program,
NA
which was in an early stage of preclinical development. Will “significantly reduce” its internal discovery efforts in RNA therapeutics owing to “ongoing challenges with formulation and delivery and the reality that the current range of medically relevant targets where siRNA may be used is quite narrow.” Novartis has 26 full-time employees in its RNA therapeutics program.
Source: BioCentury. NA, not available
Michael Francisco is a Senior Editor at Nature Biotechnology.
843
