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AstraZeneca today announced that its Chief Executive David Brennan will receive no increase to his base salary this year, as the drug maker continues a freeze for top executives imposed last year due to weak economic conditions.

Brennan's 2010 salary will remain at $1.4 million, the same level since 2008. However, Brennan’s overall compensation has been on the rise for the past few years. His total remuneration, which includes bonus, shares and other items, rose 5% to $4.9 million for 2009, versus $4.7 million for 2008, according to documents recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AstraZeneca said the base-salary freeze for 2010 also applies to other senior executives whose responsibilities are unchanged. 

While it is laudable that the company is freezing the base salary of its executives, most of their annual compensation is derived from bonuses, stock grants and options and other perks and benefits. I am certain that the hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical employees who lost their jobs over the past three years can sleep better at night knowing that pharmaceutical executives are finally feeling the pain and sharing the pain of a down economy.

Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!

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Until recently, there was little or no mention of business activity within the emerging Chinese life sciences industry. However, as the Chinese middle class continues to grow, the need and demand for pharmaceutical and biotechnology drugs (including vaccines and other biologics continues) to grow at a frenetic pace. Further, a growing abundance of US-trained scientists has allowed the Chinese life science industry to develop much more quickly than anticipated. Also, many major pharmaceutical companies like Merck, Roche and Novartis have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in China and have already established world class Chinese R&D facilities. Finally, unlike in most Western countries, the Chinese government controls roughly 80% of the pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing that takes place in China. Together, this suggests that China has quietly established itself as a life sciences power to be reckoned with! To that end, there were two reports that came across the transom this morning that piqued my interest. 

The first report was about a company called Lotus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

"Lotus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a growing developer and producer of prescription drugs and licensed national seller of pharmaceutical products in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), reported the groundbreaking ceremony on March 9 to construct a new building complex on the grounds of its production facility in Beijing.

Officials of Beijing municipal and Chaoyang district governments, officers of the China State Food & Drug, and representatives of both state-owned and private pharmaceutical companies attended the ceremony. CEO, Zhongyi Liu, welcomed the guests. "After a year of planning, we are pleased to start the construction of the new building complex and expect to finish the construction by July, interior decoration by September and GMP certification by December of this year," he said. "This is a new page for Lotus' development and it will provide important impetus to profitable growth, which is anticipated to reach $150 million in annual sales during the first year after the facility, is fully operational."

The second reported on plans to build a venture-back, “private” contract manufacturing facility that specializes in biomanufacturing in metropolitan Beijing.

"AutekBio, Inc., SUMA Ventures and Beijing E-Town Harvest International Capital Management Corporation, a venture capital group from Beijing Municipal Government announced a joint investment of more than US$100m to develop a new contract manufacturing organization (CMO) for biopharmaceutical industry in China. This joint effort led by AutekBio represents strong interests from both private investment sector and government to establish world quality capability and capacity in biopharmaceutical manufacturing in China.

The new joint venture will build up a world class R&D and manufacturing center in southern Beijing to service international biologic developments, with combined volumes of bioreactors up to 20,000 liters in multiple production lines (trains). The firm will also benefit from financial, regulatory and other supports from the Chinese government for the biotech industry." 

It is becoming increasingly apparent that China has clearly set its sights on establishing itself as player on the global life sciences stage. After spending a week in China during the country’s preparation for the Beijing Games, I discovered that China can achieve any goal that it sets for itself in very short order.  

Until next time...  

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try China)!!!!!! 

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The competition for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding has been intensifying over the past five years or more. In the past, NIH had gone to extraordinary lengths to insure that senior investigators didn’t lose their funding so as to not hinder the progress of long standing research programs. However, in recent years, NIH funding managers have eschewed the unwritten policy of preferentially funding established investigators in favor of younger ones!  According to an article in today’s New York Times, NIH grant managers are increasingly ignoring the advice of study sections and funding scientists whose projects receive less favorable reviews than those denied money. Many of the favored funding recipients are “new investigators,” or scientists who had never before received a grant from NIH. Further, in 2007, the last year for which figures are available, “19 percent of the grants awarded to individual scientists were made as exceptions, or given outside of rankings by scientific reviewers, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. Nearly all of the increase in exceptions in 2007 went to new investigators, with the young scientists’ share rising from 20 percent of all exceptions in 2003 to half in 2007.”

Not surprisingly, many senior investigators are calling “foul” despite the fact that the median age at which scientists win their first NIH grant has risen steadily, to 41 years, from 35 in 1980. While all meritorious grant proposals ought to be funded, the reality is that there simply isn’t enough money to around. As a former tenure track faculty member, I believe that new investigators deserve something of a handicap or edge when it comes to competing for their first grants. After all, how can an overwhelmed, newly minted faculty member be expected to successfully compete with established investigators who have mastered their jobs and more importantly, the art of grant writing? Sadly, the old practice of preferentially funding established investigators over new ones tended to stifle innovation and reward scientists who liked to play it safe!

We live in an increasingly competitive world where innovation is at a premium. American scientists and granting agencies must abandon their old practices if they want to remain competitive on the world stage. To that end, funding some young, innovative investigators over a few established faculty members who have enjoyed long successful scientific careers doesn’t seem like a bad investment to me! After all isn’t all about retun on investment these days?

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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According to a report released by the president’s Council of Economic Advisers the biggest gains in job growth by 2016 will be in the areas of healthcare and education services. Moreover, most of these jobs will require postsecondary education degrees mainly in the form of certificates and associates degrees. To meet this demand, the report argues for ways to improve the US education system so that American workers can more easily adapt to a more skilled-base economy.

The report also notes that manufacturing will continue its long term decline and that small growth will occur in the business and financial sectors of the US economy. Construction and transportation are likely to begin to grow once the economy improves. However, the largest demand and increases will occur in healthcare services, environmental-related occupations and in education service providers. Whereas other sectors of the economy have been battered by the recession, growth in the healthcare and educational services sectors have remained robust.

In the past, emphasis has been placed on obtaining a baccalaureate degree to garner gainful employment. While this trend will likely continue, explosive growth is expected for occupations that require only an associate’s degree or postsecondary education certificate. Growth in these types of jobs is predicted to outpace occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or higher.

The report also describes goals that must be met to improve the American postsecondary education system. These include: improving early childhood, elementary and secondary education; better school curriculums; closer collaboration between employers and educational institution to ensure that students learn the skills that they need on the job, better financial aid; and accountability for education and workforce programs that don’t work. I have long contended that both undergraduate and graduate programs in the life sciences introduce skill-based workforce development activities into their curriculums. Unfortunately, my attempts have fallen upon deaf ears. Perhaps this report will induce the administrators who can institute this type of change to take their “heads out of the sand”and take notice.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Learning!!!!!!

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Making a profit (and a large one at that) is the primary objective and driving principle of capitalism. That said, the for-profit sector is currently in a shambles—mostly due to greed and stupidity of the so-called stewards of the American economy. Maybe it is time for many of us to abandon corporate greed in favor of job opportunities in the more philanthropic and altruistic not-for-profit sector. I was surprised to learn that, despite the current economic downturn, there are growing numbers of jobs at non-for-profit hospitals, clinics, civic organizations and education (pre-school, primary and secondary).

While these jobs typically pay less than for-profit ones, their for-profit equivalents may no longer exist. And, as we all know too well, having any job at all is a big plus in these dismal economic times. Unfortunately, not-for-profit jobs like their for-profit counterparts are not immune to economic realities and layoffs. Nevertheless, there are currently not-for-profit jobs out there and now may be as good of a time as any to check them out!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!
 

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