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Yesterday, Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company announced that it would double the size of a planned expansion of its R&D headquarters in Cambridge MA and add 200 to 300 new employees.

Not to be outdone, Teva, the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer, today announced that it would create 200 jobs at a distribution facility it plans to open in Northeast Philadelphia.

According to a press release, the $295 million project will create more than 200 jobs within three years and retain more than 200 existing positions. It would appear that cash-rich pharmaceutical and generic drug manufacturers are beginning to realize that investments in infrastructure are likely to be important as the pharmaceutical sector continues to undergo a transformation. Also, it is likely that they are running out of acquisition targets and have to spend some of their excess cash for tax purposes (I know pretty cynical but what can I say) In any event, this is good news for unemployed former pharmaceutical employee and also for the American economy!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

(Check out Philly; it's not as nice as Cambridge but a job is a job!)

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For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the latest pharma layoffs, I came across an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal that does an excellent job of recapping all of the major life sciences layoffs that have taken place in the past year or so. The recent massive pharma layoffs prompted William Ashton, Acting Dean of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia PA to say “I was in the pharmaceutical industry for 28 years. I’ve never seen such a sea change as is occurring right now. This is really dramatic.” Further, Dr. Ashton predicted that drug companies will increase their use of contract sales forces (CSFs) and contract research organizations (CROs) to contain expenses and that staffing firms will be the winners.

This led to me to wonder what Dean Ashton has been doing for the past 10 years or so because the life sciences industry has already increased its reliance on CROs and CSFs. A quick perusal of the pharma and biotech employees who lost their jobs over the past few years reveals that a majority of them were in sales and R&D. I don’t know whether or not I should break the news to Dean Ashton, but the future is already upon us—another example of how out of touch academia is with industry in the 21^st century.

I think that it is time for industry executives and academicians to begin a serious dialog to determine the type of training that would be appropriate for individuals seeking jobs in the life sciences industry. A failure to do so will likely have a negative adverse effect on the continued growth and future success of the US life science industry.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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The Avandia debacle is still ravaging the employee ranks at GlaxoSmithKline especially at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and in Philadelphia locations. According to a post at Pharmalot, the UK-based drug manufacturer is cutting as many as 350 jobs (2.0% of its workforce) at both locations. This represents an almost 40% reduction in drug discovery and development activities that take place at both sites.

These cuts come after GSK closed a factory and drastically cut its sales force late last year. To make matters worse (particularly for those folks who lost their jobs) GSK purchased an early-stage drug discovery company called Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for about $720 million earlier this year. Clearly, company executives have more faith in external rather than internal drug discovery at GSK.

The saga continues……

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget North Carolina)!!!!!

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