Job Outlook 'Excellent' in Cancer Biotech

Search the Biotechnology Industry Organization's Web site using the keyword "cancer" and you'll come up with pages of companies with at least one product, department, or research program aimed at oncological therapeutics. The late-1998 approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Genentech's Herceptin, a monoclonal antibody used to treat metastatic breast cancer, is one attestation to the upswing for biotech cancer products. Typically investment in biotech--and hence hiring--is cyclical. "For example, 1998 to 1999 were very lean years in which the capital markets were not receptive to research," says James Bianco, president and CEO of Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics Inc. "People are now much more receptive to putting fair amounts of capital into earlier stages of research such as genomics. It turns out that cancer and cancer-focused companies have to be one of the hot properties in the life sciences sector right now." Bianco and others describe the job opportunities in cancer-focused companies as "excellent" for clinical and basic researchers, as well as regulatory-affairs experts and statisticians. Biotech firms are on the cutting edge of innovative cancer treatments, remarks Mark Rogge, chair-elect of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists section on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and drug metabolism. "Biotech companies are where the new scientists will be sought after first of all, and second, will be given the opportunity to discover and create and develop new drugs," he says. Rogge is also director of drug development at Immunex Corp. in Seattle.A Broad, Active Field Gwen Fyfe, senior director of oncology at Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, Calif., lists three broad areas that employ Ph.D.s, M.D.s, and M.D.-Ph.Ds. One is targeted bench research. "We have a huge research budget at Genentech, and we're very interested in breakthrough science," emphasizes Fyfe. Clinical development--running clinical trials and testing drugs--is a second area. According to Maurice Wolin, vice president of medical affairs at Chiron Corp. in Emeryville, Calif., people versed in the product and its background and people proficient in drug development are needed for clinical cancer research programs. He notes that development "requires interfacing with regulatory agencies such as the FDA, clinicians, and activist groups in some situations." Wolin also mentions that because Chiron has a worldwide focus, it's important for some of the clinical research staff to be knowledgeable about getting drugs approved in Europe and the rest of the world. A third area is postmarketing activities, which involve development of a product after it's been approved by the FDA. This includes researching how a drug may be used in smaller niche areas and supporting the marketing and sales departments for the approved use. For example, Genentech has two approved biologic compounds. Rituxan, a chimeric monoclonal antibody directed against the CD-20 molecule, has been approved for relapsed low-grade lymphoma. The company is currently developing it for intermediate-grade, more aggressive lymphomas. Herceptin is being developed for earlier stages of breast cancer. A primary clinical research focus at Chiron has been developing ways to boost the use of one of its main products, Proleukin (interleukin-2), by coupling it with such newer agents as monoclonal antibodies. Proleukin, an immunotherapy agent, is being used to fight metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Biotech companies draw employees from diverse disciplinary backgrounds as well. "We hire a broad range of people, from entry-level technologists to Ph.D.-level people, with experience in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, immunology, and vet and animal model skills for preclinical studies," says Katherine Klinger, senior vice president for research and development at Genzyme Molecular Oncology (GMO), a division of Genzyme Corp. in Cambridge, Mass. GMO develops molecular approaches to cancer diagnosis and therapy through genomics, gene therapy, and combinatorial chemistry drug discovery. GMO also hires researchers for medical-regulatory affairs. These are primarily M.D.s who evaluate the medical need for therapies. They also have a clinical regulatory staff that interfaces with the FDA and draws up research protocols. Many biotech firms echo what Klinger, Wolin, and Fyfe describe. Others mention epidemiology, pharmacology, and statistics as other backgrounds in demand. According to Rogge, biotech firms concentrate on therapies that are very specific to certain types of cancerous cells, rather than expanding the number of products similar to existing therapies. "Companies tend to concentrate on the cancers characterized by large numbers of affected people and inadequate therapy--lung cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer," says Fyfe. "In my subspecialty most people are trained in hematology, specializing in the liquid tumors like leukemia and lymphoma." Or their training could be in solid tumor oncology. Companies, compared to agencies such as the National Cancer Institute, adds Rogge, tend to go after the most aggressive forms, including such soft tissue cancers as breast, pancreatic, and gastric, because they tend to be the least treated cancers and poorly managed cases. Generally, says Fyfe, "no matter what a person's expertise, we hire people who, even if they haven't been in industry, have worked with cooperative group trials, so they have some experience in designing clinical trials." Although Fyfe doesn't hire people in the research groups, she says they're looking for applicants with a strong research background, good postdoc experience, and an interest in applied approaches. ResourcesAmerican Association of Pharmaceutical Scientistswww.aaps.org Biotechnology Industry Organizationwww.bio.org Chiron Corp.www.chiron.com Cell Therapeutics Inc.www.cticseattle.com Genentech Inc.www.gene.com Genzyme Corp.www.genzyme.com Ontogeny Inc.www.ontogeny.com Areas to Watch Not coincidentally, many of the highly active fields of study from the past several years--immunology, angiogenesis, apoptosis, genomics, developmental biology --are also the areas coming up with innovative approaches to fighting cancer. "I think one of the most promising and definitely exciting areas in cancer research right now is in the realm of immunology," says Rogge. "The most exciting pathways that are being explored are the apoptosis signaling pathways." One of GMO's areas of concentration is tumor immunology and antigen discovery, incorporating the genes for those antigens into viral and nonviral delivery vehicles to reach dendritic cells. Using the tumor antigens as guides, these cells then educate cytotoxic T cells to lyse tumor cells. Cell Therapeutics takes a different approach to fighting cancer. Its strategy, says Bianco, is to address "how to make cancer treatments less toxic, finding novel targets and ways of delivering chemotherapy that allow you to target the tumor more selectively than noncancerous tissues." Cell Therapeutics has two cancer products in trials: Apra, to treat cancers that have grown resistant to conventional chemotherapy, and PG-TXL, a less toxic form of the world's most widely used cancer drug, paclitaxel. "We have developed a core expertise in the role of lipids and phospholipids and how [their regulation goes awry] in the oncogenic process," says Bianco. "We chose a whole family of human genes that are abnormally expressed in tumor cells." Doros Platika Back to the Beginning Cancer researchers have known for some time that many tumors reactivate embryonic genes, but they haven't known why. Although most of the targets of Ontogeny Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., are in tissue repair and regeneration, says senior vice president for research Lee Rubin, "it occurred to us that the very pathways that were important in the embryo and that we hoped could be activated again in the adult in degenerative diseases were often associated with adult cancers when they were inappropriately activated." One of Ontogeny's targets for development is patched, a gene important in the growth of cells that give rise to skin and certain components of the nervous systems. "The logic was that it would be tumors in the brain and skin where the path may be reactivated," says Doros Platika, president and CEO. This was confirmed in 1996, when a number of publications pointed out that mistakes in the patched signaling pathway were responsible for a human genetic disorder called basal cell nevus syndrome. In addition, the patched pathway becomes overactivated in basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Ontogeny is trying to selectively inactivate the patched pathway to treat BCC. Might cancer research be an applied area to which more developmental biologists are moving? "We think so, but we're biased," says Platika. Nonetheless, he says there is a growing role for developmental biologists in oncological research and development. "I would think in the not-so-distant future that companies like Lilly, Human Genome Sciences, Novartis, Roche, Genentech, and Exelixis are going to start hiring developmental biologists to not only study malignancies, but also to treat degenerative diseases." Karen Young Kreeger (kykreeger@aol.com) is a contributing editor for The Scientist.

Job Outlook 'Excellent' in Cancer Biotech

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