Outlook 2002: Jobs Abundant Despite Recession

Two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks the US government finally acknowledged that an already anemic economy had slipped into recession. It wasn't exactly a stop-the-presses moment. Everyone, from the guy with a few nickels in a 401k plan to big money investors, knew that Wall Street's run had ended. While every sector of the economy has suffered, the slowdown has refocused attention on the life sciences, which venture capitalists had shunned only a few years ago. In biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals, venture capital investments are relatively safe with a strong potential for handsome returns. And more money means more jobs for scientists and researchers. "It's a sellers market," says Tom Abt, candidate resource manager for Bench International in Beverly Hills, California. "There is a lot going on in biotech. It's in the news everyday and any time the industry is talked about it creates a lot of action. I don't see it slowing down." Courtesy of Richard Carter Richard Carter The job outlook for post-doctorate jobseekers may be a little less favorable, according to industry headhunters. That said, people with the right credentials, from the right academic laboratories, working in the right field--such as oncology or genomics--should have no problem finding work. "Just getting your PhD is not as important as working for the right professor," says Richard Carter, president of Sanford Rose Associates of San Francisco, a life sciences search firm. "Now it is critical that you are working for a name person and working for the right group. It is very important for post docs to find those investigators who are in really critical, pivotal areas." With funding flowing in and jobs aplenty, many believe that the biotech industry is poised to change the way illness and diseases are treated and medicine is practiced. "Right now we're seeing a lot of private money fueling the industry," says Rene Salas, leader of the Mid-Atlantic Life Science Practice for Ernst and Young in Washington, D.C. "There are also record amounts [of funding] that the National Institutes of Health has available now." Individual states are pumping even more money into life sciences. At least 20 states have announced plans to create biotech corridors. For example, the goal of Pennsylvania's three incubators, says Michael Celano, is to close the capital gap between bench science and commercially viable products. "The greenhouses will allow the academic institutions to do that one more additional test," says Celano, a partner in Life Science at Andersen in Philadelphia. "It's exciting seeing the new money going into this space. It gives me hope that the industry is poised for excitement in 2002." Rich Drug Vein Liquefies Research Amount Number of Deals 1999 $1.7 billion 169 2000 $3.6 billion 256 2001 $1.9 billion 147 Source: Venture One Biotech and biopharmaceuticals do indeed look poised to do well in 2002 and beyond. Consider this: Over the next five years some 300 new drugs will be passed through the Food and Drug Administration approval process, pretty much draining major pharmaceutical pipelines. Finding new drugs starts with basic scientific research. And bench scientists are already deeply involved in the research for so called personalized medicines, drugs based on an individual's genetic makeup, which are expected to hit the market in the next five to eight years. "What I find exciting now is the diversity," says Susan Lindquist, a professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the Whitehead Institute, a leading biomedical research center based in Cambridge, Mass. "It's just not focused on 'Let's find a drug for a certain disease.' We're developing so many tools with genomics." Diversity, excitement, and the seemingly boundless possibilities, analysts say, are the keys to attracting the necessary money. Pretty good for a sector that not long ago was viewed as ho-hum by speculators. When biotech flashed onto the scene in the 1980s, it became the instant darling of investors. But when those same investors realized it would take years, lots of false starts, and money to deliver the new breed of miracle drugs to market, interest waned. "Historically the people who made investments in the sector have made a reasonable return," Celano says. "It is a slow, steady investment." By the mid 1990s, investment money all but dried up for biotech as high tech's siren song of quick profits bewitched many venture capitalists. The investment thaw actually started sometime in 1999. By year's end the biotech industry saw 169 deals bring in $1.7 billion in cash. But 2000 was a year like no other. With the human genome project making headlines, biotech companies raised as much money in one year as they had in the five previous years. "Over 50 companies went public" in 2000, says Salas. "It was Christmas in the industry. It was a great year." Courtesy of Venture One Corp.Sara Smith Investment in biotech totaled $3.6 billion in 2000. Sara Smith, a spokesperson for Venture One, a San Francisco-based venture capital research company, says, "What's difficult to tell is how much growth and investment in 1999 and 2000 was a specific interest in biopharmaceuticals and healthcare, and how much of that was generalized interest in anything that investors could put money in." The only way to judge, Smith says, is to look at the numbers for 2001. At the end of the third quarter, biotech had raised $1.9 billion, behind pace for 2000 but still out-earning all of 1999. "The fact that healthcare has done comparatively well in the difficult times we've seen this year, I think, suggests that last year may have actually been an indication of an increase interest in the area and a general desire to invest," Smith says. Still, investors have chosen carefully. The companies getting the most attention are those with a drug in development for the last seven or eight years that are almost ready to come to market. It is much harder to find seed money. That's not to say the money isn't out there. One just has to know where to look, says Brent Stockwell, head of his own chemical genomics lab at the Whitehead Institute. Instead of getting an entire project underwritten, researchers and small companies must live year-to-year on grants from small foundations and philanthropic organizations. "It's a little more challenging to get may be a one year or two year grant and it's more targeted," Stockwell says. "But if you have a compelling idea there are foundations willing to take a chance on a riskier project." Scientists: Tough Recruits With the industry on the upswing, finding qualified research scientists is getting harder. Stockwell has had problems filling four positions, including one for a postdoctorate fellow, and some recruiters also note a shortage of specialized re-searchers. "It's still a very solid market for people with differentiating backgrounds," says Ron Zingaro, president of Zingaro and Co., a Texas firm that specializes in placing biotech scientists. "Companies are looking for a proven track record of having been at a company that has brought product to market." And just as start-up companies are having trouble finding seed money, postdoc researchers can expect lean pickings on the job market. "It will definitely not be as rosy for postdoctorates," says Ina Bauman, president of Bauman Group, which finds scientists for small research companies. "But if you are coming out with an oncology, infectious disease or immunology fellowship, it is very rosy." Choosing where, what, and with whom one does postdoctorate work is now more than ever crucial. "If you are looking at the cutting edge areas like molecular biology or genomics, yes, here will be a tremendous demand for those people," Carter says. "The [firms] will be paying high salaries, unheard of salaries for people with those skills." If that isn't enough good news, Bench International's Abt says he doesn't see the trend or demand slowing down any time soon. "Usually we go into a lull this time of year," he says. "The fourth quarter there is not a whole lot of money or resources. That is not the case right now. We haven't had any indications that 2002 is going to change." Bob Calandra (rotoca@aol.com) is a freelance writer in Philadelphia.

Outlook 2002: Jobs Abundant Despite Recession

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