Where Have All The R&D Jobs Gone?
Over the past three years, more than 90,000 pharmaceutical employees [1]have [1] http://www.biojobblog.com/2009/04/articles/biojobbuzz/why-downsizing-may-hurt-pharma/
By on May 27, 2009Over the past three years, more than 90,000 pharmaceutical employees have
been layed off. While many of these former employees were drug reps, a majority who lost their jobs were R&D scientists. If drug makers have already jettisioned tens of thousands of R&D jobs, how is the next generation of medicines going to be discovered and developed?Like
it or not, pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D is beginning to be outsourcedmuch like information technology (IT) was in the late 1990s.
And, like the IT industry much of R&D is being outsourced to countries like India and China. This should not be surprising because for the past 20 years or so, most of the people receiving PhDs in the life sciences were foreign nationalsmany of whom were unable to stay
in the US because of post-9/11 immigration policies and visa quotas. Without many options, many had no choice but to return to their home countries to seek employment and in some at contract research organizations (CROs) that specialize in pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D.
According to a recent article written
by J B Gupta Senior Vice President Collaborative Research GVK
Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. India, for the last five years or so, Indian CROs
like GVK Biosciences, Aurigene, Syngene, Advinus, Jubilant, Suven Life
Sciences, Sai Lab, Accunova, iGate etc. have been positioning
themselves as purveyors of R&D services to pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies. These efforts have apparently paid off!
Companies like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Forrest Laboratories, Eli Lilly
& Co, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Serono, Wyeth, Bristol Myers
Squibb and others have entered into strategic R&D partnerships with
many of Indias leading CROs.
A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation suggests that India better
positioned and ahead of China in R&D outsourcing. Further, the pace
at which discovery collaborations are being established in India
suggests that the western pharmaceutical industry is looking to Indian
CROs not only to cut costs but to innovate as well.
Unfortunately, while this doesnt bode well for American scientists,
the US has nobody to blame but itself. Wrong-headed immigration
policies coupled with inadequate training for life scientists who want to pursue industrial careers
are largely responsible for the current R&D outsourcing activities.
Like IT, I suspect that outsourcing will work for some companies but
not others. Nevertheless, I think that outsourcing is here to stay and
like it or not American life scientists will have no choice but to
adapt to the new normal.
To join the discussion about outsourcing R&D jobs please
visit www.biojobblog.com and www.biocrowd.com.