Trouble in Big Pharma Land: Lilly Freezes Employee Salaries
The Pharmalot blog reported today that Eli Lilly & Co one of the more progressive big pharma companies to experiment with crowdsourcing and social media to generate new R&D opportunities today announced that it most company employees and executives will not receive base pay increases this year. The company did not announce a freeze in bonuses, however.
In a sign of solidarity with the 99 %, John Lechleiter, PhD Lilly’s outspoken and sometimes controversial CEO, requested that he not receive an increase to his $1.5 million annual salary and incentives. Interesting, as Ed Silverman cogently points out in the Pharmalot post, Lechleiter’s bonus target is 140% of his base salary which put his total compensation for the upcoming year at around $16.4 million!
Last week, the company disclosed that it missed analyst’s stock price estimates and its leading product Zyprexa (antipsychotic) yielded lower than expected sales revenues because of generic competition. Zyprexa sales dropped 44 percent in the fourth-quarter to $749.6 million.
Don’t be surprised if layoffs are next. It may be time for Lilly employees to dust off those CVs and resumes.
Until next time...
While I spend most of my time as a freelancer, I sometimes will do contract work because the pay is good and the hours are reasonable. As many of you know by now, using contractors rather than hiring new employees has become the new way of controlling costs and keeping the full time headcount low. After all, paying someone an hour wage without covering insurance and other employee benefits costs can be huge savings to companies trying to maintain competitiveness and cut costs.
Those of you who manufacture products approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are well aware of the importance of complying with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) during FDA mandated inspections of your manufacturing facilities. Failure to comply with cGMP requirements during an inspections results in the issuance of 483s. And if you fail to adequately address the concerns of the agency outlined in 483s, it may ultimately result in issuance of warning letter to your company.
Since 2001 many major pharmaceutical companies have been restructuring their sales forces and laying off reps to reduce redundancies, improve efficiencies and cut costs. This downsizing, which likely peaked about a year ago, is mainly in response to the projected loss of sales revenue as many blockbuster drugs lose patent protection over the next three years or so. For example, products like Lipitor, Plavix and Zyprexa that currently generate more than $142 billion in sales are expected to face stiff generic competition in the very near future. 
After announcing its quarterly earnings and a 24 percent increase in 2011 profits, AstraZeneca (AZ) .jpg)
I started BioJobBlog in 2007 primarily as a means for me to express myself about life science careers and issue and challenges confronting the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. That said, I never thought that BioJobBlog would ever amount to much; it was simply a vehicle for me to rant and rave about things that were important to me! It is a daunting challenge to begin a blog with no readers and then realize that 5 years later over 2.0 million unique readers have visited to read my thoughts and ideas about a wide breadth of topics.
Thing have been quiet in the pharma layoff space during 2012. I guess that is not so surprising since we are only one month into 2012. However, there was a .jpg)
Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories 
Disposing of unused prescription and over the counter drugs including antibiotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and birth control pills by dumping them down the toilet has .jpg)
Ome Ogbru, Pharm. D, CEO and Founder of 
Asia’s largest drug maker, Takeda, 
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Earlier this week, I suggested in a .png)
This past holiday season, as usual, was rife with massive layoffs and downsizing at various big pharma companies. Interestingly, in 2011, most biotechnology companies were able to weather the economic downturn and layoffs were not typical. Sadly, 2012 looks to be a more challenging year for many biotechnology company employees.
For many corporate employees, the annual performance review process is a bane to their existence. For those of you who may not be familiar with annual reviews, most corporate employees are required to undergo a review process that includes a synopsis of their accomplishments over the past year and new goals for the upcoming one. And, as all corporate employees understand, the quality of an annual review determines the size of the bonus that they can expect to receive and whether or not a salary increase is in order for the upcoming fiscal year. In other words, you never want to get a “less than stellar” annual review because your fiscal well-being depends on it!
The German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) today announced that it plans on investing 70 million Euros to expand its manufacturing facility in the Zhangijiang High-Tech Park in Shanghai China. The expansion will continue through 2013 and the number of employees will increase from 240 to 400 at the new facility.jpg)
The Pharmalot blog
There are a variety of reasons why the life sciences job market has been so dismal in recent years. First and foremost, there are too many applicants for too few jobs; employers are ignoring resumes/CVs that previously commanded face-to-face interviews. Second and perhaps more pernicious, is the notion among corporate executives and hiring managers that current graduates (both undergraduate and graduate students) have been catered to and are so academically untested that they bring little or no value to today’s fast-paced and demanding workplaces. While this characterization may or may not be warranted, it is a prevailing attitude that is likely hindering employment opportunities for recent life sciences graduates.(1)(1).jpg)
Last week, US unemployment dipped to 8.6%, it lowest level since 2008. Stock markets rose and everyone was buoyed by a possible economic recovery. What a difference one week can make. Today, Astra Zeneca announced that it will layoff 1,150 sales reps; a few short weeks after announcing plans to eliminate 400 jobs at is US headquarters in Wilmington, DE. The company currently employs about 61,000 workers worldwide, including 14, 000 in North America.
I received a heads-up from the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Sergio Lewis about a free webinar entitled “How to Secure and Nurture a Vibrant Chemistry Career in the 21st Century.” The webinar is scheduled for December 1, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 PM and will be led by Brian Fahie, PhD from Eli Lilly & Co. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
While many of you are happy just because you have a job, there are those individuals (deserving or not) who are going to “bite the bullet” and ask for a raise. This makes sense because over the past few years the cost of health insurance has gone up along with college tuition, gasoline price and a variety of other things while salaries have all but stagnated. Interestingly, only 9 percent of companies have put pay freezes in place over the past 18 months; a rate this is consistent with historical standards. That is down from the nearly two-thirds of companies that imposed pay freezes in January 2010. In other words, now may be a good time to ask for a raise as companies are trying to retain high value employees who presumably were too vital to lay off when companies were downsizing over the past three years. Sadly, merit raises (when they are meted out) have precipitously dropped in recent years from an average of roughly 4-5 percent to a paltry 2 percent on average today.
Not a day goes by without some report about pharma’s ongoing problems with illegal drug promotions, class action suits against blockbuster medications or civil or criminal settlements with state and federal governments. A quick perusal of articles posted to the Pharmalot Blog in November alone revealed no fewer than eight big pharma companies including 
Ed Silverman, the intrepid author of the Pharmalot Blog, (1).jpg)
About two years, I posted an 
The New Jersey Governors Office 
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a 
Fewer and fewer American college students are choosing to major in Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). This has been an ongoing trend in the US for the past two decades. However, within the STEM majors, the life sciences are faring the best. While I believe that the US needs more life sciences majors to remain competitive with the rest of the world, there are a .jpg)
Over the past five years or so there has been a proliferation of blogs that cover the life sciences industry. While I visit some of them frequently, e.g., Pharmalot, EyeonFDA and PharmaLive,.(1).jpg)
Despite a lull in layoffs over the past summer, this fall is shaping up to another bad one for pharmaceutical employees. Late last week Novartis announced that it was laying off about 2,000 employees. Prior to the Novartis announcement, 
Blogs first began appearing on the web about 10 years ago and most experts agree that they ignited the social media revolution. While blogs are the oldest form of social media, many pharma companies are reluctant to contribute to the content of the blogosphere. This is mainly because of perceived regulatory and legal issue and consequences. Nevertheless, a few intrepid big pharma companies have taken the social media plunge and currently maintain blogs with various formats and content.
Angry with recent job cuts announced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, protesters, this past Saturday, gathered in Basel and beside the villa of its former CEO and Chairman Daniel Vasella to .jpg)
I just returned from the AAPS meeting in Washington, DC and I was very surprised to learn that many graduate students and postdocs have heard of Twitter but don’t know exactly what it is or how to use it! Because of this, I decided to write a post that offered a step-by-step approach for using Twitter as a job search tool for life scientists who may be looking for jobs. However, much to my delight, I found a recent post on the (1).jpg)
I just returned from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) meeting in Washington DC where I gave three talks about biocareer development strategies. One of the talks, "Emerging Job Opportunities in the Life Sciences Industry" was reported on (see below) by a writer from Fierce Pharma. While I don't usually "too my own horn." about my achievements, I thought a Number 2 ranking in the publications daily top 10 list was certainly worth a mention. 
While LinkedIn is not considered by many to be a “true” social networking site (some consider it to be little more than a place to post an electronic resume), it is increasingly becoming the place to go to look for or find a job. Most recruiters and many hiring managers used LinkedIn to source qualified candidates for job open at their organizations. That said a well-thought-out and carefully written LinkedIn profile can make the difference between employment or not.
Over the past 10 years or so there has been an enormous amount of consolidation in the life science industry. While this activity has been very good for shareholders, it has had a devastating effort on pharmaceutical R&D says John LaMattina PhD, a chemist, 
Despite the initial pushback against social media by many pharma and biotech companies it appears that Twitter is emerging as the medium of choice for the life sciences industry. The main reasons for this trend are the 140 character world limit and the real time nature of Twitter. Unlike Facebook pages and blogs, where visitor’s comments (of any length) remain for indefinite periods of time, the information contained in tweets is minimal and their exposure time is second or minutes rather than days or months. These features allow pharma and biotech companies to more easily manage information flow and quickly implement damage control when necessary. .png)
Last week .jpg)
Earlier this week Roche Holding AG 
Abbott Laboratories today 
Last week, BioJobBlog in association with 
Online degree programs have exploded in the past 10 years or so and are now considered to be a legitimate way to earn a second or third degree to enhance the chances of finding a job in a tough economy. Further, an article that recently appeared in the NY Times .jpeg)
Conventional wisdom suggests that failure or negative comments can be harmful or potentially damaging to the career trajectory of most people. While in many cases this may be true, sometimes they may have an opposite and unanticipated positive effect or benefit. This is certainly true for me..jpg)
Last week, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner 
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Remember when Amgen was the world’s largest and most profitable biotechnology company? That was way back in 2006 before its marketing and sales team got in trouble for “pushing” the sale of its erythropoietin (EPO) product Epogen and Aranesp beyond acceptable patient safety limits. This, along with a relatively thin new drug pipeline, has for the past five years or so relegated the company to second tier biotech company status.
I am not sure how I missed this 
Despite the fact that women in the US earn nearly 60 percent of four-year college degrees and make up almost half of the American workforce, women held about 14 percent of senior executive positions at Fortune 500 companies. An even lower percentage of female scientists hold tenure track faculty positions. 
Astra Zeneca today announced that it will eliminate 400 positions at the company’s Wilmington, DE headquarters. Most of the cuts will be in sales and marketing and the downsizing is intended “streamline portions of its commercial business to best serve patients in the US.”
From 2001 to present, roughly 300,000 pharmaceutical employees have lost their jobs. That is a massive number; second only to the job losses in the automotive and financial services industries. The main reasons for the layoffs have been a lack of return on investment on R&D activities and impending patent cliffs in 2013 for as many as 15 blockbuster drugs. 
Recruiting, retaining and managing patients that participate in clinical trials for approval of new medicines and devices have becoming very challenging in the past decade or more. Ironically, the ready availability of experimental new medicines in the US for certain therapeutic areas including oncology, neuroscience and vaccines have forced life sciences companies and CROs to conduct many Phase I and Phase II trials outside of the US. In turn, the globalization of clinical trials has forced many sponsors to increasingly rely on e-based and mobile solutions for patient recruitment, retention and compliance.
After a relatively quiet summer, big pharma companies are beginning to ramp up layoffs once again.
As scientists, we all subscribe to the notion that diversity is a critical component to the evolution of any species. While we this is a well known fact, the life sciences industry, like others, struggles with workforce diversity mainly in the area of research and development. For example the number of minority students—blacks and hispanics—who receive PhD degrees is miniscule as compared with their white counterparts. Graduate schools struggle to promote diversity in their programs but their efforts to date have been lackluster.
While big pharma companies continue to shed jobs, there are some indications that the biotechnology industry is beginning to pick up some steam. For example, Boehringer Ingelheim (both a drug development and biomanufacturing company) is planning a 
Over two years ago at the beginning of the social media/pharma debate, I 
According to an
As a blogger and an occasional Twitter user (believe me I would tweet more if I didn’t have to work for a living), I have often wondered how much of an impact that the links I post have on readers and followers. While there is little doubt that the posted links persist into perpetuity, it was not clear how long people continued to click or follow the links after they were posted. That is; until now!
While getting a PhD degree in the life sciences (or most other disciplines) is no longer de rigueur, those of you out there who are courageous enough to make the attempt may benefit from an article entitled “.jpg)
Mark Senak, author of the outstanding 
Despite the fact that no new jobs were added to the US economy in August, things were pretty quiet in the pharmaceutical layoff space. From what I was able to find, it appears that 
Layoffs at big pharma tend to slow during the summer as most people are on vacation and nobody wants to fire folks when the kids are out of school. However, the failing economy has prompted several companies to abandon tradition and fire people during the summer anyway.
For the past few years, I along with many others have advocated the use of social media platforms (mainly Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) by life sciences companies. Despite a very positive beginning by companies like Novo Nordisk, Johnson and Johnson and others, the implementation of social media in the life sciences industry has been stymied by a lack of regulatory guidance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and legal and commercialization concerns. While many believe that FDA guidance on the topic will be the panacea that they were waiting for, I personally don’t believe that it will make one bit of difference. That said, 
About a year ago, I suggested that real time.jpg)
A 
Last week, financial analysts and social media enthusiast were all a twitter (sorry I couldn’t resist) about 
There is no longer any doubt that big pharma companies are beginning to 
For the past several days, the rumor mill has been rampant with suggestions that UK-based Shire may acquire Cubist, a publicly traded Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that sells .jpg)
While big pharma continues to struggle with the use of social media to promote its products, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC), the method of choice for American pharmaceutical advertising is alive, well and robust. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that big pharma is reallocating some its traditional DTC advertising dollars to deliver drug ads to mobile devices which are growing in popularity. 
Shire, an Irish speciality pharma and rare diseases drug maker, today 
Not too long ago, the mere mention of the word “vaccine” caused most big pharma executives to break out into a cold sweat. Once derided as low margin products and potential market busters—once most populations are immunized the incidence of disease declines and the market begins to falter—vaccines, primarily pediatric ones, have made a huge comeback over the last five years. 
Merck & Co, which yesterday completed its $430 million acquisition of Inspire Pharmaceuticals, 
The 
Big pharma continues to lament the increased scrutiny being imposed on it by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Like it or not, the agency’s directive is to insure that the drugs that it approves are safe and effective for the American public. And, for the most part, the agency does its job and frequently catches companies that attempt to break the rules.(1).jpg)
Mathew Herper, who writes at the Forbes Blog, 
While India and China have been getting much of the attention and press over the past few years, Latin America is quietly become a market to watch for the life sciences industry. According to industry analysts,
The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis continues to 
While video may be losing some of its “newness" and cache in social media circles, it continues to grow and has become a mainstay of networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and of course YouTube! Despite its popularity in most industries, the life sciences industry continues to eschew its use. The reasons for this are not clear but it is counter intuitive given the billions of dollars the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies annually invest in .jpg)
BioJobBlog readers who understand 
The Japanese drug maker Eisai, Co .gif)
The life sciences industry is all a-Twitter (sorry) about social media and its implications for future business opportunities. Nevertheless, despite the obvious “upside” of social media, as is always the case in the pharmaceutical industry, most companies don’t want to be the first to do anything innovative or novel (go figure). 
Little is published in the blogosphere about the life sciences industry in Canada. Because of this, many people think that Canadian scientists and other bioprofessionals may have fared better than their US counterparts. However, like the US, thousands of scientists and others have lost jobs throughout Canada during the almost three year global recession.
ComScore, a company that tracks Internet traffic .jpg)
Believe it or not, employment opportunities are looking better in the life sciences industry. While this may be good news for some, the need for R&D scientists and sales representatives in the US is dwindling. The high cost and low ROI for R&D at most major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies has forced life sciences executives to outsource many R&D functions that previously had been performed in house. Likewise, the inability of companies to bring novel, new medicines to market has reduced the need for pharmaceutical companies to maintain large sales forces. Put simply, there aren’t enough drugs to be sold to warrant large numbers of sales people trying to sell them! Given this backdrop, now may be a good time for bioprofessionals in these areas to consider new job opportunities and possibly new career paths. To that end, this post contains information about several biocareer developments sites (created by me) that may be helpful to bioprofessionals looking for work or new careers. 
Layoffs at big pharma companies
In press release today,
Twitter, for all intents and purposes, is arguably the hottest new tool to hit the social media scene since well.....errrrrrr....Facebook (are there really any others?). That said, everyone who is anybody has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon whether or not using Twitter has any positive or negative effects for its users. Nevertheless, insightful social media analysts like Mark Senak, author of the fabulous 
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A new .jpg)
What a difference six months can make in the fast moving world of the social web! At last May’s Advanced Learning Institute’s conference on “Social Media for Pharma” there was a lot of anxiety, hand wringing and concern about the future of social media in the life sciences industry. 
Ed Silverman, author of the fabulous 
Despite signs earlier this summer that job cuts at pharmaceutical companies were beginning to slow, it appears that the number of jobs lost in 2010 may come close to the roughly 61,000 pharmaceutical jobs that were eliminated in 2009. This is based on quarterly 
Despite public assertions made by Novartis a mere .jpg)
that it plans to eliminate 4,500 jobs by 2012. Of the 4,500 positions to be cut, roughly 1,700 will be eliminated in Germany. Interestingly, during the same period, Bayer plans on creating 2,500 new jobs in “emerging markets;” yet another sign that big pharma is betting on translating the explosive growth of these markets into large profits..jpg)
The fiscal year at most life sciences companies is drawing to a close, new budgets are being crafted and the holiday season is almost upon us. In years past, this time of year typically meant that it was bonus time for most pharma workers. Sadly, over the past three years bonus time has been replaced by layoff time. And, unfortunately the upcoming holiday season may not be joyous for many Pfizer and Roche employees.
Most major pharmaceutical companies left Brazil about 30 years ago. However, much has changed in the country over the past 30 years and most western pharmaceutical companies are rushing back into Brazil to expand their operations and make acquisitions. At the same time, many Brazilian drug makers are beginning to consolidate and spread abroad.
Biocon, one of India’s leading biopharmaceutical companies today
There is no question that Facebook is the de facto social network that almost everyone uses. It has become an important source of personal information and is routinely used by professional recruiters and corporate hiring managers to identify right-fit job candidates.
I am certain that many of you may have noticed that the size of the life sciences industry is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. Big pharma companies flush with cash, near- empty pipelines and impending patent cliffs have embarked on a buying spree that is likely to continue for next years (or at least until the economy shows clear signs of resuscitation). Pfizer’s .jpg)
Whether you like President Obama or not, the changes he made in the leadership at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is beginning to yield results. After just two years, the agency is well on its way to modernization and overcoming its descent into the dark ages during the failed Bush Administration.
While a
I found an .jpg)
The pharmaceutical industry, not unlike all big business during the disastrous Bush Administration, was virtually unregulated. Bush and his cronies managed to accomplish this feat by destabilizing the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and essentially hamstringing any regulatory authority that it had. Not surprisingly, many pharmaceutical companies saw an opportunity to increase their bottom lines by engaging in off label marketing of many of their approved drugs—a practice clearly forbidden by the agency. 
With unemployment high and the economy showing little sign of improvement, finding a new job has become increasingly challenging. And, not surprisingly, the types of interview questions that hiring managers are beginning to ask prospective job candidates are becoming more intricate and complex. I found interesting
The fourth 
In this economy, many BioJobBlog readers may find themselves in the unenviable position of having to consider changing careers to find gainful employment. While career counselors like me can offer job seekers ideas about possible alternate or non-traditional careers, actual navigating a career change can be daunting, painful and often times overwhelming. With this in mind, I came across an article on (1).jpg)
Several months ago, I 
The ever watchful Mark Senak of the highly informative 
The Pharmalot Blog 
Mark Senak, a pharmaceutical social media advocate and the author of the 
Despite assertions by its CEO that there isn’t enough scientific talent in the US, Eli Lilly announced that it will lay off a couple of thousand employees within the next 90 days. Most of the cuts will take place in Indianapolis at four different sites where the company currently employees about 13,000 workers. According to an
I read a post today on Yahoo News entitled
For the past few years, CEOs have been taking a lot of heat; and in many cases rightfully so. However, from time to time some of these “captains of industry” say things that may be useful to ambitious young executives, employees and would-be entrepreneurs. 
According to a .jpg)
Although the economy is in the toilet and unemployment remains high, highly skilled and ambitious employees are usually not at risk of losing their jobs. In fact, these employees are highly sought after and frequently contacted by recruiters trying to get them to “jump ship.” In other words, there will always be jobs for these employees even though the rest of us may be unemployed. Companies clearly recognize the value of these employees and will use all available strategies to retain them. 
There is no question that interviewing is an art and that experienced job candidates may have a leg up on more junior candidates seekers when it comes to face-to-face (F2F) job interviews. That said, there is a commonly held belief among job seekers that hiring managers frequently ask silly, “bonehead” and irrelevant questions during F2F interviews. Examples of these frequently asked questions include “What are your strengths and weaknesses” and “Tell me how you overcame adversity or a difficult situation at work.” .jpg)
Yesterday, I posted a piece on "hit' throughput screening (see below). At the time, I learned about 'hit" throughput screening, I mentioned that I had never heard of "hit" throughput screening but I did know about high throughput screening. As it turns out, there was a problem in translation and in fact, there is no such thing as hit throughput screening and it is actually high throughput screening. Mea Culpa! I apologize for the error and in the future I will be assiduous in my fact checking before I post (a lesson that the boneheads in the Obama administration learned the hard way in the recent Sherrod brouhaha)
Some of you may have noticed that a new tab entitled “BioCareers” has been added to the BioJobBlog navigation bar..jpg)
There are signs that the economy is improving and that unemployment levels have dropped from a high of 10.1 % to current levels which are hovering around 9.5 %. While this is good news, job cuts continue at many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as drug candidates fail in clinical trials and technological advances make certain employees dispensable.
Congratulations! The resume that you spent many hours carefully crafting has resulted in a face-to-face interview at a Company that you are extremely interested in. After the adrenalin rush has worn off, you think “OMG, I have to put together a seminar, make travel arrangements and buy new clothes and shoes (well only if you are a woman)”. Although you may think that the hard part of your job search is over; think again….the fun is just beginning. .jpg)
One of the many things that I was not taught in graduate school (or as a postdoctoral fellow for that matter), was how to prepare a resume. Despite opinions to the contrary, a resume is a very important document that must be well organized and carefully crafted. This is because the first thing that every hiring manager sees when looking for new employees is a job applicant's resume. As the old adage goes, first impressions are the most important and the ones that last the longest. That said, it is typically in a job candidate's best interest to have the first impression be a good one. To that end, resume should not be prepared hastily nor should theybe crafted without a substantial amount of thought and consideration. I do not want to get into the nuts and bolts of resume writing in this post. However, every resume should contain the following information:
The ever-increasing competition for faculty positions is forcing many graduate students and postdocs to consider careers outside of academia with a likely eye on industrial jobs. Unfortunately, many of these would be industrial scientists lack the appropriate training and qualifications for entry-level jobs at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. This is because most undergraduate and graduate programs do not offer training to their students in drug development, quality systems and manufacturing. The reasons for this include: 1) lack of well informed and qualified faculty members to initiate and develop specialized curricula on these topics and 2) a belief that job training is the responsibility of prospective employers, not academic researchers. Unless substantive curricular change is made to existing academic programs, the road to employment for many students will continue to be bumpy and fraught with difficulty. 
In this past Sunday’s New York Time Business section there was an .gif)
BioJobBlog and Career Management Source, a producer of online applications for streamlining job searching and hiring, have teamed to create .jpg)
The once venerable drugmarker Eli Lilly & Co yesterday .jpg)
Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies like to distinguish themselves from companies that manufacture consumer products because their products have the potential to save the lives of patients suffering from a plethora of illnesses. While a life-saving cancer treatment may inherently be more valuable than a pair of snow tires, the goal of the companies that manufacture them is to sell enough products to remain profitable. To that end, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have an edge over consumer products companies because drug makers can use altruism and philanthropy to market their drugs. In fact, many drug manufacturers play up their commitments to altruism and philanthropy to justify high drug prices because of the enormous costs associated with drug discovery and development. This tactic begs the question: “Just how philanthropic are drug makers?”.jpg)
While the layoffs at pharma and biotech companies continue, the good news is that fewer jobs are being lost in 2010 as compared with 2009. Despite the massive loss of R&D and sales and marketing jobs, many life sciences companies are beginning to hire again. In general, job opportunities at emerging growth public biotech and venture-backed start-ups appear to be growing while those at big pharma and big biotech are stagnant or shrinking. Specifically companies are 
More and more people are losing their corporate jobs because of the recession. The bleak job market coupled with diminishing opportunities for older, seasoned employees is forcing many to consider starting their own businesses to join the ranks of the self employed. However, before you take the leap, I highly recommend that you read Phyllis Korkki’s article in this Sunday’s New York Times entitled 
There is no question that video is taking the Internet by storm and is quickly replacing the written word as a means of communication. Despite the obvious business opportunities offered by videos, most big pharma companies have failed to jump on the video bandwagon. As always, there are exceptions to the status quo and a handful of life sciences companies most notably Johnson & Johnson, have been experimenting with video over the past few years.
Pfizer today 
Now that the economy is improving and the job market is loosening up a bit, the likelihood of a face-to-face job interview is increasing. The folks over at 
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MedTrust Online, an online oncology information site 
For the past three years, I assiduously have .jpg)
There are rumors that companies are hiring again and that pharmaceutical jobs may begin to make a comeback over the next six months to a year. This may be a real possibility based on a new report released yesterday the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc.
Last week I attended the Advanced Learning Institute’s conference on .jpg)
I want to state at the onset of this post that I am an ardent supporter of online patient communities because I believe that the exchange of information between people who suffer from the same or similar medical conditions is vital to their health and well being. Further, I believe that social media will force physicians, the medical community and the US healthcare system to become more transparent, open and interactive. That being said, in this past Sunday’s New York Times, Natasha Singer wrote an .jpg)
It is becoming increasingly difficult for undergraduate and graduate students to secure entry-level jobs at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. This is because these students lack the appropriate training and qualifications for entry-level jobs at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Unfortunately, most undergraduate and graduate programs do not offer training to their students in drug development, quality systems and manufacturing. The is likely due to: 1) lack of well informed and qualified faculty members to initiate and develop specialized curricula on these topics and 2) a belief that job training is the responsibility of prospective employers, not academic researchers. Unless substantive curricular change is made to existing academic programs, the road to employment for many students will continue to be bumpy and fraught with difficulty.
Earlier this week, I attended Advanced Learning Institute’s (ALI) conference (1).jpg)
Astellas, Japan’s second largest pharmaceutical company, yesterday .jpg)
It is no secret that growth of the pharmaceutical industry has slowed to single digits in the past five years or more. In fact, many experts don’t expect there to be double digit growth in this sector for a long time. Instead, future robust growth of the pharmaceutical industry is expected to take place in emerging markets including India, China, Brazil, South Africa and others. This is because the economies of these countries are booming and the middle class in these nations continues to rapidly grow. .jpg)
Melville, NY-based OSI Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the cancer drug Tarceva and arguably one of the most successful biotechnology companies in the New York metropolitan area, has .jpg)
The
Ashley over at pharmacytechniciancertification.net sent me a 
Those of us a certain age have all heard of the so-called new math—which by all accounts wasn’t much different than old math—that was suppose to revolutionize the way math was taught at the primary and secondary education levels. While new math may not have not have much different or better than old math from an academic perspective, pharmaceutical companies will have to reckon with the new math associated with the pricing of brand name prescription drugs if they want to remain competitive in the future..gif)
Eli Lilly and Co. announced last Thursday that it plans on 
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced Tuesday that its board authorized the 
After almost a week advising students about the difference between resumes and curriculum vita (for scientists there is no difference), academic vs. an industrial curricula vitae and cover letters at .jpg)
Earlier this year, Dan Vasella, the longtime CEO of the Swiss drug maker Novartis, .jpg)
Pfizer today 
Ed Silverman who runs the outstanding.jpg)
Roche 
Astra Zeneca 
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 
Mark Senak, author of the incisive 
Ed Silverman, who runs the 
Emily Johnston of 
For the past decade or more, small to mid-sized biotechnology companies had been outsourcing production of their preclinical and clinical protein-based products to Asian contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). This was because manufacturing and labor costs were lower and product quality was consistent with Western standards and requirements. However, the recent economic down turn coupled with rising prices at Asian CMOs (mainly driven by increasing labor and project management costs) has .jpg)
American competitiveness in engineering, technology and science. Unfortunately, while American competitiveness and innovation in these areas continues to wane, little has been done (except talking) about it! 
Earlier this week, an
Mark Senak, social media enthusiast and author of the .jpg)
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Mary Canady author of the Comprendia Blog recently .jpg)
Billy Tauzin, a former Congressman and high profile lobbyist, unexpectedly resigned as President of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, (PhRMA), a pharmaceutical industry lobby and trade organization. According to a 
After announcing that it would .jpg)
A rare or orphan disease is defined in the US as one that affects fewer than 200,000 at any given time. It is estimated that there are 6000 to 8000 rare diseases in the world today. Because the number of patients afflicted with orphan diseases is so small, drug companies have historically been reluctant to invest money to discover and develop new treatments for them. The dearth of treatments for rare diseases induced Congress to pass the
It goes without saying that the competition for jobs in the life sciences industry is extremely fierce. This means that job candidates must use whatever means possible to differentiate themselves from the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others applying for the same job!.jpg)
The past couple of weeks have been awful for employees at 
, or 12 percent of its work force, by 2014 to cut costs as it reported disappointing fourth quarter earnings. The job cuts will be made across all regions and divisions and were necessary because some of the company’s major products including the child asthma medication Pulmicort, which made sales of $1.3 billion in 2009, and breast cancer treatment Arimidex, with $1.92 billion in sales will be losing patent protection in the near future.
There is no question that job opportunities for recent life sciences undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are becoming increasingly difficult to find. While this is troubling, older, mid-career bioprofessionals who may be looking for new jobs and challenges are having a rougher go of it. This is because older employees generally cost more to hire and many employers mistakenly believe that seasoned employees make lack the drive and technological skills as compared with younger, less experienced jobseekers.(1).jpg)
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Last week, the market-analyst firm .jpg)
It is getting difficult to keep track of the job cuts that are happening almost daily at Pfizer. A quick perusal of the job cuts to date indicate that the company has eliminated about 1200 jobs in the past week;.png)
Mark Senak, author of the 
Jonathan Richman, author of the Dose of Digital Blog, got it exactly right in today’s post entitled “(2).jpg)
Earlier this week, Mark Senak who writes the EyeonFDA blog, offered his i
I was chatting with a fellow medical writing colleague the other day and the topic of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising came up. I suggested that DTC advertising is largely ineffectual but my colleague suggested otherwise. To prove his point, he sent me a fascinating article entitled “Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: An Attitude Survey of Psychiatric Physicians (.jpg)
Mark Senak who writes the EyeonFDA blog has 
Pfizer was the first to bring us ED (erectile dysfunction) and now two companies—one large (Johnson and Johnson) and one small (Sciele Pharma)—are daring to boldly go where no MAN has gone before: to conquer PE aka premature ejaculation!
I realize that I have been blogging about adverse events for the past couple of day but, let’s face it; the pharmaceutical industry lives or dies by the number of adverse events (AEs) that are reported for approved and marketed drugs. In any event, I came upon an interesting post in a Pharmaceutical Processing e-blast about the results of a .jpg)
In a previous 
today reports that spending on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising came bounding back in the third quarter —rising 15 percent to $1.16 billion, according to 
Losing a job or getting laid off is without a doubt one of the more emotionally devastating events that most people face. Unfortunately, in these troubling financial times, many more people are likely to face this likelihood than any other time in recent history.
Mark Senak, social media advocate and author of the EyeonFDA blog, has been spot on with his commentary on the recent public hearings held by FDA to unravel the social media conundrum facing the life sciences industry. Despite its good intentions, the agency is intent on applying an anachronistic method of developing guidance (designed for processes that undergo incremental changes) for a technology that changes rapidly and is ill-defined. In other words, they are trying to force a square peg into a round hole—it simply won't work!.jpg)
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In today’s edition of the incisive EyeonFDA blog, Mark Senak, provides a 
Employees of Pfizer/Wyeth were notified earlier today of impending changes and consolidation that will be taking place at the newly combined company. According to internal sources, Cambridge, MA, Groton, CT and Pearl River, NY will be the main centers of the combined company’s East Coast operations and San Francisco and La Jolla/San Diego CA will represent West Coast operations. In Europe, the research facility in Sandwich, England will be the main R&D center with a network of smaller sites, in locations such as Montreal, Ottawa, Cambridge UK, Aberdeen UK, and Dusseldorf, Germany providing expertise in vaccine production and biomanufacturing. The company’s China R&D Center in Shanghai will remain the focal point of operations in Asia,
I am attending the 
It is amazing the things you learn if you pay attention from time to time. While attending a meeting on e-healthcare last week in Philadelphia I learned that according to the American public the pharmaceutical industry is less popular than the banking industry. This was startling to me given that the recent financial collapse was caused almost entirely by the banking industry. That the pharmaceutical industry is more reviled than the banking industry suggests that life sciences company have a bit of PR work to do. But, not to worry, people still hate the oil industry more than the pharmaceutical industry.(1).png)
e-Patients Connections 2009 .jpg)
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An annual survey conducted by Science magazine and the American Association has identified the .gif)
NextLevel Pharma 
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Lisa Roner, blogger and editor for EyeforPharma, recommends a podcast on social media that was created by Dr. Andree Bates, CEO at Eularis, a company that applies analytics to determine the sales impact of specific marketing programs.
BioCrowd co-founder, .png)
Berci Meskó author of the .png)
During my recent trip to Vermont and Woodstock, NY I had several conversations about Twitter. Surprisingly, I was being asked to explain Twitter to my nephews, both of whom are in their early 20s and to family friends who are in their late 40s and beyond. Also, at several recent science career fairs that I attended many graduate students and postdocs had never heard of Twitter or it they had, they don’t use it. Initially, this was puzzling but after considering the most recent Twitterverse demographics –I think the average age of Twitter users is around 35 to 40—it made more sense to me.
Like it or not, writing a carefully-constructed resume or curriculum vitae (as resumes are known in scientific circles) is a vital part of any successful job search. Inexperienced job seekers tend to hastily craft resumes without paying much attention to format, style or content and then wonder why they can’t land job interviews. The best way to approach resume writing is to think of a resume as a work of art–something that requires a lot of thought, creativity and attention to detail. As one well-known professional recruiter and job search expert put it”Trying to find a job without a smart, well-crafted resume is like showing up for dinner at a fancy restaurant in a T-shirt and cutoffs. They won’t let you in.” 
While the economy is showing signs of a possible recovery, the unemployment numbers continue to rise. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep your resume as up-to-date as possible. Yes, I know it is a hassle to update and stay on top of you resume especially if you already have a job. However, in these uncertain financial times, you never know when you might be back on the job market. To that end, I highly recommend a piece on .jpg)
Pharmaceutical,biotechnology and other companies that sell prescription drugs and devices are deathly afraid of adverse events (AEs) associated with their products. For those of you who may not know, companies with approved prescription drugs and medical devices are required to track and report any adverse events associated with their products to regulatory agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If FDA receives enough AE complaints about a product, the agency will investigate to determine whether or not there may be efficacy, safety or tolerability issues with it. And, if FDA thinks that the AEs are legitimate, it may ask a company to conduct Phase IV clinical trials with the product in question or require that changes be made to the product’s label. Not surprisingly, these outcomes can be time consuming and perhaps more importantly, costly. Label changes—especially for blockbuster products—frequently lead to changes in physician prescribing habits which can translate into a loss of revenue. Despite the fact that ALL drugs exhibit AEs, many companies falsely cling to the hope that there will be few, if any, AEs reported for their products..jpg)
Mark Senak, author of the 
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Until today, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC) has received very little attention during the recent spate of debates over healthcare reform. The (1).jpg)
The debate, if you can call it that, over whether or not interactive social media platforms like .jpg)
Mark Sendak, a social media enthusiast and author of the 
Over the past several years, I have publicly called for fundamental changes in graduate education and training for life scientists. To that end, I was delighted to read an OP-ED piece in today’s New York Times entitled “End Universities as We Know It” written by Professor Mark C. Taylor, Chairperson of the religion department at Columbia University. .jpg)
The New York Times reported 
Twitter, which is currently de rigueur in social media circles, is emerging as one of the most powerful branding and marketing social media tool that has been developed to date. 
Since 2007, approximately 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs have been eliminated. The recent consolidation in the industry, e.g., Merck-Schering, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech suggests that many more life sciences jobs will be lost over the next year or so. Typically, to avoid law suits and possible discrimination claims, most companies will layoff a mixture of experienced and entry level employees that cover the racial, religious and age spectra. For those of you who may not know, Americans who are 40 and older constitute a “protected class of employees.” In other words, companies that layoff employees cannot disproportionately give pink slips to employees 40 years of age or older. This law was enacted because older employees typically have higher salaries and have accrued more benefits and vacation time than their more junior counterparts and eliminating them can drastically cut costs. While most companies are careful to layoff a mixture of junior and senior employees during large layoffs, a quick perusal of the demographics of employees who lose their jobs reveals that many of them are older, more experienced workers. Sacrificing a few entry level employees (to prevent any red flags) is worth it to the accountants who charged with cutting costs and orchestrating large corporate layoffs..jpg)
Today's New York Times reported that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warning letters and ordered 14 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to stop running what it calls misleading ads on internet search pages displayed by search engines like Google. The agency faulted the companies for failing to identify product names (brand) and not listing potential side effects (only benefits) for the drugs. In other words, the ads lacked “fair balance” something that FDA stresses and that all drug makers are very familiar with. 
The old baseball adage which says that “you can’t tell the players apart without a program” is particularly apt when it comes to tracing the M &A activity that led to the creation of some today's largest pharmaceutical companies.
As you all know by now, 
How many of you read the printed ingredients and nutrition fact boxes found on packaged foods to help you decide which of two similar products you ought to buy? What if the same concept was applied to direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ads? Do you think that it would be easier to determine which of two similar medications may be best for you? Well, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School think so! And, they are urging the US Food and Drug administration to adopt a similar concept for all DTC advertising.
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Twitter, the microblogging platform, is the current rage in social media. According to 
While the domino theory was incorrect when it came to the spread of communism during the Cold War, there may be a kernel of truth to it when it is applied to today’s pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, Pfizer announced that it would lay off 800 researchers. Not to be outdone by Pfizer,.jpg)
For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the latest pharma layoffs, I came across an 
For the past five years, I have been giving career development seminars that offer graduate students and postdoctoral fellows alternate careers choices (instead of research) for life scientists. The intent of these seminars is to get students who may not be enamored with a possible life long career at the bench (I know that there a lot of you out there) to think about what they really want to do after they complete their graduate or postdoctoral training..jpg)
Over the past few weeks, the blogosphere was rife with rumors and speculation that Pfizer would be laying off additional R&D personnel in December. However, it seems that the layoffs have been 
According to a recent analysis conducted by .jpg)
I am frequently asked by life sciences PhDs whether an MBA would improve their chances of finding a job in industry. And, my response is always “maybe— because it depends. I don’t think that getting a traditional MBA really gives you that much of an edge especially if you are an established PhD looking for career advancement or change. However, if you are a graduate student or postdoc who has already decided that academia is not for you, then getting a certificate or M.S. through an established graduate program in biotechnology (
Let me begin with the good news. The Indianapolis Business journal reported today 
First, King Pharmaceuticals posted a non-branded high blood pressure video on YouTube in early 2007. Next, Novartis added a 60-second commercial (as part of its 
ing ideas and tips that I presented in .jpg)
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