The Protean Job Market

Image: Erica Johnson Life scientists looking for work can take heart in the fertile job market despite worldwide economic doldrums: Jobs exist in plenty and should remain abundant for some time. Nevertheless, some market trends make it trickier now to snag a high-paying position than in recent years. Venture capitalists reluctant to risk investments in biotechnology have pressured small and midsize companies to reduce expenses and bring products to market more quickly. Also, mergers and consolidations among the larger biotech and pharmaceutical companies have changed the ratio of administrators to workers. On the plus side, emerging fields such as systems biology and pharmacogenomics now offer new opportunities. The outlook in Europe is comparable to that in the United States, with smaller companies seeking to conserve cash. "There is an air of caution," says Peter Nicholls, chair of the personnel advisory group for the BioIndustry Association in London. "It has not come to a grinding halt, but hiring activity has slowed." This fickle marketplace offers openings to specialized scientists, and may send generalists back to graduate schools to learn new skills. In Europe, for example, certain jobs, including those for medicinal chemists and bioinformaticians, remain in good demand, Nicholls says. As more US companies bring products to market, they seek people skilled in clinical trials development and in regulatory compliance. Other hot biotech areas include analytical chemistry, quality assurance, quality control, statistics, data management, and biotech-specific software programming, says Frank Heasley, president and chief executive of Marysville, Wash.-based MedZilla, a career development and Internet jobs site company. "These positions have been and will continue to be difficult to fill." Job seekers with expertise in molecular biology and genomics tools may be better able to woo Big Pharma than can their colleagues, according to Tony Price, a managing director of Russell-Reynolds Associates, an executive placement firm in San Francisco. "The major pharmaceutical companies are hiring and increasing the number of people doing research especially in large-molecule biologicals," Price adds. BIOTECH DREAMING Biotech companies vie with Big Pharma in the rate of hiring: The industry employs more than 179,000 people in the United States, building a workforce that has already more than doubled during the past 10 years, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization in Washington, DC. During the same decade, revenues have more than tripled from $8 billion (US) in 1992 to $27.6 billion in 2001.1 Salaries reflect burgeoning biotech revenues. Biotech and pharmaceutical scientists report median salaries of $75,000 and $83,675, compared with the median for academics of only $60,700, according to a survey of 11,492 life scientist salaries by Abbott, Langer, & Associates, and sponsored by The Scientist, and the American Institute of Biological Studies.2 Biotech salaries also keep pace with inflation, says Tracy Murphy, spokesperson for TechieGold, a national network of recruiting companies. "If you have experience and hold advanced degrees, you can command higher salaries." But many small- to midsize-biotech companies, especially those that do not have products on the market, find it increasingly difficult to raise money for ongoing expenses. This difficulty stems from the downturn in the biotech stock market and a shift in focus in biotech venture capital activity since the beginning of the year.3 While the biotech industry as a whole garnered a healthy $1.8 billion in venture capital during the first half of the year--more than a third of all such investments--most of these deals went to companies with several drug candidates in later-stage clinical development, rather than to riskier startups and those focusing on discovery. "Quite a few life science companies are finding problems in getting financing," says Nelson Campbell, senior vice president for biotech at Friedman Billings Ramsey, investment bankers in Arlington, Va. As a result, conserving cash has become a priority, and layoffs are becoming increasingly common. Seattle-based Targeted Genetics laid off 45 people in August, nearly one-quarter of its staff. Corvas International, a San Diego-based biotech company attempting to develop drugs to treat cancer and heart disease, announced in July it would slash its staff by 40%, primarily in research and administration. Genomics tool and technology companies have been among the hardest hit, and bioinformatics companies are also facing a dramatic downturn, says Oliver Fetzer, a vice president of the Boston Consulting Group. The larger biotech companies become prone to layoffs when they merge. Amgen announced that it would cut 5%, or 400 to 500 jobs, from Immunex following the acquisition of that company in July. The same holds true for pharmaceuticals. "We are already seeing people coming out from Pharmacia in anticipation of the Pfizer takeover," Price says, although the job-cutting pressure there is expected to occur more in marketing and administration than in research. Still, as some doors close, others open. "While the smaller companies without products are experiencing downward trends in hiring, there is no change in hiring trends for the well-established firms with products," Heasley says. Biotech giant Genentech in South San Francisco is in a hiring mode, says spokeswoman Amy Gartner. The company has more than 250 job vacancies among the company's 5,000-person roster. "We are looking for everyone from folks straight out of school with a biology background or biotechnology certificate from a local community college all the way up through PhDs and researchers," she says. Similar employment opportunities exist at Genzyme in Cambridge, Mass. The company has more than 160 job openings, from senior scientists to lab technicians, among its 5,500 positions. Research associates can earn from $25,000 to $35,000, while PhD scientists earn from $75,000 to $95,000, according to a company spokesperson. And despite the announced job cuts at Immunex, Amgen is still seeking more than 300 people, including medical and clinical researchers, senior scientists, research associates, and the always-needed technicians. Many on the job-hunting trail head for the biotech clusters in San Francisco, Boston, and suburban Washington, DC. Literally hundreds of biotech jobs go begging in California's East Bay area due to the lack of qualified talent.4 Skilled technicians with two years of higher education and production experience are in high demand. Median entry-level pay for these technical positions is $35,000. Research scientists in the East Bay area can earn from $68,000 to $85,000. THE UNIVERSITY MACHINE Major universities, medical schools, and research institutions are hiring specialists in genomics, bioinformatics, cellular signaling, proteomics, and systems biology. Many major universities are expanding their biotech programs, says Gary Skuse, an employment specialist and director of the bioinformatics program in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Jobs for technicians with bachelor's and master's degrees in bioinformatics are abundant both within academia and in industry, he says. "There is a huge expansion of high-throughput, postgenomic technologies to investigate cells, proteins, and genes in a rapid manner," says Shankar Subraman-iam, professor of bioengineering, chemistry, and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. The university is running half a dozen large projects in these areas, each with a staff of 20 to 30 people. Desired backgrounds for these employees include training in biology combined with quantitative skills and even engineering. "These positions are not just for PhDs," Subramaniam says. Other schools with similar large programs and job opportunities include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, UC-San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins University. "Bioinformatics is a hot area and it will continue to be a hot area," says James Cassatt, director of the Division of Cell Biology and Biophysics at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. "Biology will become an information- intensive science in the next two to three years, and we will need the scientists able to exploit that." Over the next few years, biotech will become more complex with the convergence of data management and systems biology, according to Roger Wyse, a managing director of Burrill & Co., a life sciences venture capital firm in San Francisco. Needed skills will include computer science, data management, applied mathematics, and molecular biology. Other opportunities will exist for people skilled in pharmacogenomics. "The idea is to increase the efficiency of the clinical trials process and to prevent high-cost, late-stage failure," Wyse says. "These people will be needed both in biotech and in the large pharmas." But in the end, career opportunities depend as much on skill, talent, and aptitude as on competition among companies. "There are some fields in biotech that are more suited for people with highly analytical, mathematical, logical minds, and there are other fields in biotech that are far more suited for people who are highly creative and intuitive thinkers," Heasley says. Regardless of the congestion in a chosen specialty, "if an individual is outstanding and really enjoys working in a particular field, that is the place he or she should go." Ted Agres (tedagres@lycos.com) is a freelance writer in Washington, DC. References 1. "Beyond Borders: Ernst & Young's Global Biotechnology Report," New York: Ernst &Young, 2002. 2. "Compensation of Life Scientists in the United States of America 2002." Abbott, Langer & Associates. 3. P. Brickley, "Tracking venture capital around the world," The Scientist, 16[15]:39, July 22, 2002. 4. T. Munroe, G.W. Craft, D. Hutton, "A Critical Analysis of the Local Biotechnology Industry Cluster - Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, & Solano," San Francisco: Bay Area Bioscience Center, June 2002.

The Protean Job Market

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