Need For New Drugs Keeps Pharmaceutical Scientists' Pay High

Salaries for most pharmaceutical scientists rose in 1989, reflecting the ongoing development of new drug products and the need to keep pace with inflation, according to the latest annual survey conducted by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The 5,350-member association, based in Alexandria, Va., represents a wide range of science professionals who design, test, market, and develop drugs. For scientists working in industry--the bulk of those responding--1989 salaries rose 3.4 percent over 1988 pay, to a mean of $63,200. Similarly, pharmaceutical scientists working in academia received pay hikes of 6.5 percent, to a mean of $58,800. The association sent questionnaires to more than 4,600 of its members between April and July 1990. Of these, 1,854 replied, amounting to a 40 percent response rate. About 63 percent of the respondents held a Ph.D. Seventy-four percent worked in private industry, and 23 percent worked for universities. Most respondents had between 11 and 20 years of experience. Eighty percent of the survey respondents were men. The average salary for men in industry was $66,400, but the corresponding figure for women was $50,900. Compilers of the survey suggested that this discrepancy was due to the small number of women in the field and their relative lack of experience. The average age of the female respondents was 35, about five years younger than their male counterparts. Twenty-five percent of the respondents were involved in developing pharmaceutical products, known as dosage form design. Research and development managers were the second-largest job category, constituting 14.3 percent of those who replied. Pharmacokinetics, the study of drugs' interactions with the body, was the third-largest job category, with 11.5 percent of respondents reporting this as their specialty. The overall salary increases in 1989, say those affiliated with the association, were prompted by the marketplace: Large pharmaceutical companies and up-and-coming biotechnology firms were increasing their efforts to create new drugs. Similarly, universities, faced with competition from higher-paying drug companies and an aging pool of professors, found it necessary to offer higher salaries to attract what hiring officials described as a small crop of newcomers. Coupled with the usual need to match inflation, these factors helped to push up pay scales. But fallout from the 1980s' merger-and-acquisition boom apparently prevented the average salary from rising much higher than the inflation rate. The rapid pace of consolidation among drug companies, not to mention the maturing of biotech firms, generated fewer new spots in industry, which put a lid on the average salary for the entire profession. As a consequence, the market for pharmaceutical scientists has grown "significantly softer in the last year," says Douglas Mendenhall, vice president of pharmaceutical development at Glaxo Inc., the Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based subsidiary of the British drug company. "Mergers, realistically, have limited some opportunities," he says. "A couple of years ago, it wouldn't have been unusual for a top-notch student from a real good program to have received 10 offers. Now, I'd be surprised if a top student had more than three to four interviews." Add a worsening economy to the equation and the outlook appears clouded, says Carol Lambert, who runs Lambert Management Consultants Inc., a Lake Forest, Ill., search firm. Except for newly minted Ph.D.'s and researchers with less than five years' experience, the job market appears slow across the board, particularly for management jobs, according to Lambert. Indeed, one of the survey's significant findings was that men with up to five years' experience and master's degrees suffered a 10 percent drop in salary. In part, this might be explained by competition not only from Ph.D.'s, but also from a growing number of Pharm.D.'s, who are trained for hospital or clinical settings. But others say that demand for some pharmaceutical scientists remains strong. One industry executive, who asked not to be identified, says that competition for scientists working in pharmacokinetics is so intense that the last two people he hired went on as many as 10 interviews, and each received five other offers. He adds that a new Ph.D. specializing in pharmacokinetics might earn between $50,000 and $60,000. "There aren't enough schools producing these people," he says. Mark Coffin, a 30-year-old Ph.D. who works as a senior scientist at Glaxo, had a positive job-search experience. Coffin, a recent graduate of the University of Texas, spent less than six months hunting for a position. During that time, he received four offers. "When I first started grad school, I was told it'd be very easy to find a job," says Coffin, who is involved in product development at Glaxo. "But by the time I'd gotten out, there were a number of changes--cutbacks, mergers. My professors told me it might be a little harder." Although Lambert envisions a slow job market in first of half of 1991, she believes that "the jobs are there; you just can't pick and choose." It may be reassuring to remember, the recruiter points out, that "in the past, the pharmaceutical industry wasn't hit as hard in recession as other industries." The reason, she says, is simple: "People continued getting sick." Edward R. Silverman is a freelance writer based in Hoboken, N.J.

Need For New Drugs Keeps Pharmaceutical Scientists' Pay High

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