careers and recruitmentFourth quarter lag in biotech hiring© 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.Michael FranciscoTougher times returned for the fourth quarter of 2009, as the slighthiring increase seen in the previous quarter at the 25 largest biotechsand 10 largest pharma companies (Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 1056, 2009) didnot hold, according to three representative job databases (Tables 1 and2). Big biotech and pharma companies across the board posted fewerjob listings with the exception of Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany), whoseUS job listings jumped from 4 to 78 on Monster.com.The landscape for existing jobs is mixed as well, with Seattlebasedbiotech VLST reportedly reducing its workforce by 30% aspart of a restructuring. Contract research organization Charles RiverLaboratories (Wilmington, MA, USA) is cutting 300 jobs and plans tosuspend operations at a preclinical services facility by the middle of2010, after the completion of ongoing projects.On the pharma side, Pfizer has informed New Jersey officials of itsplans to lay off 400 employees at Wyeth’s old research center, as partof its acquisition. In addition, Merck will eliminate 500 jobs—mostlysales and administrative positions—in conjunction with its takeoverof Schering-Plough. The company, however, plans to safeguard 500jobs as part of its acquisition of Avecia (Billingham, UK). Merckwill acquire all of Avecia’s assets, including all process developmentand scale-up, manufacturing, quality and business support operations.And Lonza Group of Basel, Switzerland, a large supplier ofactive pharmaceuticals ingredients, is closing three of its manufacturingsites in 2010. One hundred and seventy-five jobs are expectedTable 1 Who’s hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest biotech companiesCompany aNumber of employeesNumber of advertised openings bMonster Biospace NaturejobsMonsanto 21,700 0 0 112Amgen 16,800 35 45 2Genentech 11,186 11 22 73Genzyme 11,000 54 0 105Life Technologies 9,700 33 23 1PerkinElmer 7,900 16 0 0Bio-Rad Laboratories 6,600 5 10 0Biomerieux 6,140 2 0 0Millipore 5,900 4 22 0IDEXX Laboratories 4,700 11 1 0Biogen Idec 4,700 35 28 0Gilead Sciences 3,441 2 12 0WuXi PharmaTech 3,172 0 0 0Qiagen 3,041 0 0 0Cephalon 2,780 0 0 0Biocon 2,772 0 0 0Celgene 2,441 11 2 0Biotest 2,108 7 5 0Actelion 2,054 1 2 0Amylin Pharmaceuticals 1,800 21 8 0Elan 1,687 5 1 0Illumina 1,536 26 0 10Albany Molecular Research 1,357 0 0 0Vertex Pharmaceuticals 1,322 19 33 4CK Life Sciences 1,315 0 0 0a As defined in Nature Biotechnology’s survey of public companies (27, 710–721, 2009). b Assearched on Monster.com, Biospace.com and Naturejobs.com, January 10, 2010. Jobs may overlap.to be lost. The sites are located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania,Shawinigan, Canada and Wokingham, UK. “The economic pressuresof the past 18 months have clearly accelerated the cost reductionefforts of the pharmaceutical industry,” according Lonza’s pressrelease. Adds Lonza CEO Stefan Borgas, “The closure of the threesites will help to optimize our global operational network and furtherincrease the competitiveness for our customers.” The company saysit will increase its platform in Asia.In a sign of confidence of biotech’s role in growing the economy,the governor of the state of Missouri embraced a proposal to “directtens of millions of tax dollars to Missouri’s biotechnology industry,”according to the Associated Press. The plan would divert an annualportion of the new tax revenues generated by biotech companies toa special state fund, from which incentives could be given to new orexpanding entrepreneurs in the same field, perhaps in the form of aidto startups, providing infrastructure to lure existing out-of-state firmsand subsidizing college-based training for the employees of biotechcompanies. The move is expected to result in a sizable number ofbiotech jobs. Missouri already is home to some top university andprivate-sector researchers in the life sciences. But economic developmentofficials say Missouri is lagging when it comes to converting thatresearch into commercial ventures.Nature Biotechnology will continue follow hiring and firing trendsthroughout 2010.Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companiesCompany aNumber of employeesNumber of advertised openings bMonster Biospace NaturejobsJohnson & Johnson 119,200 203 1 0Bayer 106,200 78 30 1GlaxoSmithKline 103,483 1 3 4Sanofi-Aventis 99,495 0 0 0Novartis 98,200 3 30 60Pfizer 86,600 39 33 8Roche 78,604 8 17 4Abbott Laboratories 68,697 30 0 0AstraZeneca 67,400 18 7 5Merck & Co. 59,800 0 0 0a Data obtained from MedAdNews. b As searched on Monster.com, Biospace.com and Naturejobs.com,January 10, 2009. Jobs may overlap.Michael Francisco is Senior Editor, Nature Biotechnologynature biotechnology volume 28 number 2 february 2010 179
people© 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.Inovio Biomedical (San Diego) has namedMark L. Bagarazzi as chief medical officer.Bagarazzi joins Inovio from Merck & Co.,where he was director of worldwide regulatoryaffairs for vaccines and biologics. Before joiningMerck in 2001, he was director of the HIV/AIDS program for St. Christopher’s Hospitalfor Children in Philadelphia.IRX Therapeutics (New York) has namedNeil L. Berinstein CSO, succeeding companyfounder John W. Hadden, who remains amember of the board of directors. Berinsteinpreviously served as assistant vice presidentand global program leader at Sanofi Pasteur,where he was in charge of leading the developmentof the company’s cancer vaccines bothstrategically and operationally.Genzyme (Cambridge, MA, USA) has namedRon Branning as its new senior vice president ofglobal product quality. Branning is tasked withensuring the quality of all Genzyme productsmanufactured at 17 sites around the world. Hebrings 30 years of experience in product qualityand regulatory affairs at biotech and pharmacompanies including Johnson & Johnson, GileadSciences and Genentech as well as companiesacquired by Baxter, Wyeth and Pfizer.Makefield Therapeutics (Newtown, PA, USA) has announcedthe appointment of Jim Ballance (left) as CSO. Most recently acorporate strategic consultant to the biotech industry, Ballancebrings more than 20 years of experience in the development andmanufacturing of novel therapeutics. His experience includes suchpositions as vice president, technology development at BioRexisPharmaceutical, director of biotech evaluation at Aventis Behring,chief technology officer at Genesis Therapeutics and head of R&Dat Delta Biotechnology.team following its recently completed mergerwith Neuromed. Mark Corrigan, former executivevice president of R&D at Sepracor and amember of the CombinatoRx board of directors,will assume the role of president and CEOof CombinatoRx and Christopher Gallen, formerCEO of Neuromed, will serve as executivevice president of R&D. CombinatoRx’s interimpresident and CEO Robert Forrester has decidedto leave his position at the company to pursueother opportunities.Roger Hickling has been appointed R&Ddirector and a board director at Phytopharm(Godmanchester, UK). He previously workedat SmithKline Beecham where he oversawboth in-house and partnered early stage neurosciencedevelopment projects, and was mostrecently R&D director and a board member atAlizyme Therapeutics.Prana Biotechnology (Melbourne, Australia)has named Paul Marks as a director of thecompany. Marks was previously vice presidentof foreign exchange with Prudential-Bache Securities and senior FX strategistwith National Australia Bank. He also servesas director of Conquest Mining and severalprivate companies.annual shareholder meeting. The company hasstarted a search for Mullen’s successor.CrystalGenomics (Seoul, S. Korea) has chosenEric M. Nelson to serve as vice presidentof business development for its USsubsidiary, Emeryville, California-based CGPharmaceuticals. Nelson brings 22 years ofexperience in business development andlicensing for pharma and biotech companies.Most recently, he was global head of businessdevelopment at Advinus Therapeutics.Proteonomix (Mountainside, NJ, USA)has announced the following managementchanges: Joel Pensley has resigned as secretary,director and general counsel and RogerFidler has joined the company as director andgeneral counsel; and Steven Byle, presentlya director, has assumed the role of secretary.Pensley resigned as an officer and director dueto health concerns. Fidler has been the soledirector, president, CEO and CFO of GlobalAgri-Med Technologies.Eric Ruby has joined Presidio Pharmaceuticals(San Francisco) as vice president of regulatoryaffairs. He served previously as seniordirector, regulatory affairs at AlnylamPharmaceuticals, where he was responsiblefor regulatory filings to support clinical trialsin the US and Europe.Protagen (Dortmund, Germany) hasappointed two new members to its executiveboard: Peter Schulz-Knappe, former CSO atProteome Sciences, will head the company’sdiagnostics business unit, and co-founder andCOO Martin Blüggel will manage the proteinservices unit.Ian Brown has been named CEO of BioCeramicTherapeutics (London) as part of a successionplan developed by the board of directors to succeedthe company’s outgoing founding CEO,Daniel Green. Brown has held senior executivepositions with Chromogenix (previouslyKabi Pharmacia), Instrumentation Laboratory,Cordlife, SDP Technology and Avanti Capital.Green will remain as a company director.CombinatoRx (Cambridge, MA, USA) hasannounced changes to its senior managementBIND Biosciences (Cambridge, MA, USA) hasannounced the appointment of Scott Minickas president and CEO. Minick was formerly amanaging director at ARCH Venture Partnersand previously president and COO of SequusPharmaceuticals/Liposome Technology.Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA, USA) hasannounced that James Mullen will retire aspresident and CEO as of June 8. Mullen willalso retire from Biogen’s board at the end of hiscurrent term as a director at the company’s 2010Pieris (Freising-Weihenstephan,Germany) hasannounced theappointment ofStephen S. Yoder(left) as CEO. Hesucceeds interimCEO and co-founderClaus Schalper, who will remain CFO. Yoderjoins Pieris from MorphoSys, where he servedas general counsel and head of licensing & IP.180 volume 28 number 2 february 2010 nature biotechnology
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