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The New Jersey Governors Office announced today that the healthcare company Allergan, Inc, known mainly for its eye care products, plans on opening an R&D facility in NJ that will inject $12 million in private investment into the state’s beleaguered economy and add several hundred jobs over the next three to five years. Allergan currently employs about 10,000 people worldwide. Allergan chose New Jersey after it received a $17 million grant from the state to build the facility.  At present its size and location is yet to be determined.

While New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (possibly a vice president candidate) is taking as much credit as possible for Allergan’s decision to open an R&D facility and create jobs, it may be too little to late for New Jersey—home to most of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies—which has lost tens of thousands of life sciences jobs because of mergers, reorganizations and layoffs.

Nice try Chris but you will have to do better than several hundred new jobs before you can claim that you are solely responsible for New Jersey’s economic recovery. I hope he is selected as a Vice Presidential candidate; then New Jersey will have a chance to right itself after the damage that Christie caused in his first two years as governor.

Until next time...

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

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The recent dismissal of the SLAPP (Suit Against Public Participation) suit brought against me by Dawn Abrams and Donna Roberts was very welcome and much appreciated.  For more coverage of the case, please read this and this.

While the case seemingly was about a dispute between a disreputable group of dog breeders and a pet owner, the case had much more to do about the First Amendment and free speech.  Please read the amicus brief submitted to the court on my behalf by the Humane Society of the United States. SLAPP suits are becoming increasingly popular vehicles to intimidate and silence bloggers and others. 

The sad thing about the current American judicial system is that anyone can sue you--with or without a good reason.  I think that  it is time that legislation is passed that seriously punishes litigants and their lawyers who willfully and knowingly file SLAPP suits. The current penalties and sanctions are a joke.

Although I was able to defend myself against a frivolous lawsuit that had no merit, it DID silence me (and the rest of the blogosphere) and it cost me an enormous amount of money!  Unfortunately, the people who brought the suit against me continued to sell dogs to would-be pet owners while my hands were tied because of pending litigation.

I find it ironic that I had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to be able to exercise my right to free speech which is supposedly guaranteed--at no cost--to all Americans.  To that end, if you would like to help to defray my legal expenses please visit StopPuppyFraud  or our Crowdrise page and make a donation. 

Until next time...

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

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Summer has finally arrived and everyone I know is kicking back, looking forward to their previously planned vacations and enjoying their four day (summer hours) work week. While many folks still have jobs, the unemployment rates are not dropping as quickly as anticipated and large numbers of layed-off and right-sized former life sciences employees are still without jobs. 

I recently checked the BioJobBlog archives and quickly realized that I have written close to 100 posts on how to craft an industrial strength resume, conduct a job search, prepare for a phone or face-to-face job interview, network and negotiate a job offer. To that end, I thought it might be informative and constructive to resurrect some of these older posts and re-assemble them into a thread that describes each step of the job hunting process. Also, as many of you may know, I was recently sued by an odious individual for invasion of privacy and defamation because I exposed her alleged illegal dog breeding and puppy mill ring. 

Consequently, much of my free time over the next two weeks will be spent on the case. That said, I will begin posting daily job hunting tips and advice on July 5, 2010.

I hope that my readers find this series useful. Also, I would like to hear from those of you who despise and abhor persons who mistreat and abuse animals and are willing to help me put my accuser out of business for good!!!!!!!!

Until next time...

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

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The Advanced Learning Institute will be hosting a conference entitle Social Media for Pharma on May 24 & 25, 2010 at the Hyatt Hotel in Princeton, NJ. Presenters include representatives from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, NovoNordisk, Daiichi Sankyo, Lundbeck, Porter Novelli, the National Organization for Rare Diseases and many others. 

Topics to be covered include:

• Developing a social media strategy that works for your organization
• Update on regulatory guidance for social media
• Managing on going regulatory challenges for social media
• Building a business case and demonstrating ROI for social media platforms
• Creating a stronger sense of community and brand recognition using social media
• Monitoring customer feedback and satisfaction
• Determine the right mix of social media for your organization
• Latest innovations in social media
• Using twitter to turn your employees into stakeholders into brand ambassadors

and much more!

An agenda for the meeting can be found here. Mention BioJobBlog or BioCrowd and get $200 off the registration fee. For more information please contact melissa@aliconferences.com

I hope to see you at the meeting…it ought to be a good one!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time..

Good Luck and Good Tweeting, Blogging, Podcasting etc etc!!!!!

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As many of you know, I have had an ongoing dispute with a nefarious dog grifter (Donna Roberts) and her daughter (Dawn aka Grace Abrams) for the past two years. While my direct dealings with these odious people have ceased, I frequently get messages from others, who, like me, were unwittingly scammed by Donna and her spawn after purchasing puppies and dogs from them.

Invariably, every time I post a new story about Donna et al, I receive repeated vitriolic and threatening rants from Donna and her cronies. I typically add them as comments to the related stories posted to BioJobBlog. However, from time to time, I like to reveal some of her comments so that others can get an impression of the person who I and others like me are dealing with.

Finally, FYI Donna, the word slander is used for spoken word misattributions and potential damage. I believe the word that you ought to use when referring to my posts is libel which is reserved for alleged damage that may result from the “written word”

An unapproved comment has been posted on your blog Bio Job Blog, for entry
#263325 (Dawn Abrams and Donna Roberts Continue to Scam Would Be Dog
Owners). You need to approve this comment before it will appear on your
site.

IP Address: 68.39.22.204
Name: Donna Roberts
Email Address: shadyoakhavs@yahoo.com
URL:
Comments:

“This is a riot.  I have not bred a litter of pups since 2007 and all your
observers are claiming to buy a dog from me, claiming my house stinks,
claiming dogs had hookworms (puppies are wormed with Drontal 5 times before
sold and hookworms are very easy to get rid of) Mr. Mintz you have never
been to my house. No names have changed, we all have our real names, it's
just your continuous slander and lies Mr. Mintz. Should I write everything
out for you, so you can get it right.  The children he is talking about are
my grandchildren, there are 7, ages 16 to 5. My daughter married a farmer,
a very hardworking, honest man. The house Mr. Mintz calls a rundown farm
house was built in 1897 and for it's age it is not very rundown. My
daughter keeps it neat and clean as far as someone can with 7 kids. All 3
of my daughters do not have one complaint against them and I have had very
few for my dog breeding hobby of 42 years. In 2007 I ran into a few people
who falsely accused me of selling sick pups, which was not the case at all,
yes the pups had a parasite but not one vet issued an UNFIT FOR PURCHASE
within the 14 days allowed by law. The two women involved, Barbara Harra
and Laurie Pallantee took it to the extreme but in the end I was found
innocent of all charges.  I would never sell a sick pup. As far as my dogs
go I have 4 dogs left, 2 males and 2 females that have not produced
anything in the last 2 years.  So Mr. Mintz your claim of a puppymill is so
bogus. We are a family that loves animals and we live a very full life and
it is so sad that you Mr. Mintz are such an unhappy person that the only
thng you have to get your Jolly's off is slandering us.”

Please continue to spread the word about these unsavory characters.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Puppy Seeking!!!!!

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse for New Jersey, Merck and Pfizer today disclosed that it will eliminate 900 more jobs in NJ. While the job cuts were expected, it is still bad news for New Jersey’s life sciences workforce.

Based on information provided by the New Jersey Department of Labor website Pfizer will eliminate 400 jobs from Monmouth Junction, NJ where Wyeth previously maintained research offices. Similarly, Merck plans on cutting 500 jobs in Kenilworth, NJ where Schering Plough’s maintained its former headquarters. While it isn’t clear what types of jobs will be affected, cuts are expected in both R&D and sales continuing an ongoing trend that began almost three years ago. In case you haven’t been paying attention, most major American pharmaceutical companies have been eliminating R&D jobs in the US and either outsourcing those activities or building new research facilities in India, China, Brazil and Eastern Europe where there are lost cost, highly trained pharmaceutical scientists.

Until next time...

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

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I am attending the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in sunny Phoenix, AZ where I will be providing career development guidance to undergraduate and graduate students. Ironically, given the dismal job prospects in the life sciences industry for entry level employees, I will be giving a talk on how to find a job!  Last year's meeting in Orlando was a great one and I expect this one to be just as good.

While I am on the road, it doesn't mean that I won't be keeping track of the goings on back in my neck of the woods. To that end, Merck announced today that it will keep Schering Plough's corporate headquaters in Kenilworth, NJ open. Merck announced the decision today after closing on the $7 billion deal yesterday. This is good news for the NJ residents who currently work at the Kenilworth site. New Jersey has been extremely hard hit by all of the pharmaceutical layoffs in the past few years. Unemployment continues to rise and things will not get any better since conservative Republican Chris Christie was elected governor on Tuesday (he plans on laying off massive numbers of state employees) once he takes office in 2010.

Johnson and Johnson, on the other hand, announced that it was closing research & development facilities in Radnor and Chesterbrook, PA and consolidating those operations at the company's Spring House site. The New Brunswick, N.J., company would not say how many jobs are at those locations now or how many would remain in Spring House after the move, which is to be completed by 2012. These closure come shortly after JnJ announced earlier this week that is was elimating ca 8,200 employees or roughly seven percent of its global workforce.

Let's hope that things begin to improve soon. 

Hat tip to the Pharmalot blog!

Until next time....

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

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced late yesterday that it intends to purchase Princeton, NJ-based Medarex for $2.1 billion. BMS and Medarex were working collaboratively to develop a monoclonal antibody called Ipilimumab as a treatment for late stage melanoma.

The acquisition represents BMS’s public commitment to transform itself into a “next generation pharmaceutical company” with both pharmaceutical and biotechnology products in its arsenal. Last year, BMS bought Kosan Biosciences, Inc a California-based biotechnology company developing novel cancer treatments. Also, as you may recall, BMS lost ImClone to Lilly in a bidding war over Erbitux—a monoclonal antibody-based colorectal cancer treatment that was co-marketed by BMS. 

Medarex was one of the last independent, public, late stage monoclonal antibody development companies in the biotechnology industry. Many of its competitors, like ImClone and Cambridge Antibody Technologies, had already been acquired by big pharma and I was wondering when Medarex would be acquired. I have always held Medarex in high regard and it is a solid and well position company. To that end, I recommended that my mother purchase Medarex stock several years ago telling her that I thought it had a huge upside. Not surprisingly, the stock has been soaring since the announcement; so much so that my mother called me today to tell me how smart I was—go figure.

It is not clear, at present, what effect, if any, the Medarex acquisition will have on the employment situation in New Jersey. Although BMS is headquartered in NYC, it has two large sites in New Jersey, one in Lawrenceville and the other in Plainsboro. As mentioned above Medarex is based in Princeton, NJ. BMS has been steadily downsizing over the past three years and I suspect that there may be more layoffs after the Medarex deal closes.  If there are layoffs, more are likely to occur on the Medarex side of the business.

While I have been critical of some of BMS’ strategic moves in the past, I think the Medarex acquisition is an outstanding one and BMS will likely benefit from it!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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I heard today from another one of Grace Abrams’ grifting victims. Apparently, this individual purchased a sick puppy from Ms. Abrams several months ago which at one year old developed some problems that likely resulted from congenital defects due to inbreeding. This person told me that a friend of hers also purchased a ‘Havanese” from Ms. Abrams which they suspect really isn’t a Havanese (despite ‘papers’ that indicate that it is). As you may recall, we also received suspect pedigree papers for the dogs that we purchased from Ms. Abrams (which prompted us to get both dogs tested). I sent Grace’s most recent victims information on the Wisdom Panel DNA tests that we used to perform genetic testing on our dogs, the results of which confirmed that Moose, our so-called Havanese, was really a mixed breed dog!

I wonder how long it will take Donna Roberts to send me one of her threatening, vitriolic notes  (read the comments) after I post this story?  I will keep you posted….

Until next time…

Good Luck with finding a new puppy!!!!!!!

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Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced today that it will expand its New Jersey-based North American headquarters. This is welcome news for the state. New Jersey has lost about 10,300 jobs so far this year. And that comes after it added 3,700 jobs last year, its worst performance since 2003. 

I would say things can’t get much worse but …..

Until next time….

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

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