Can Biopharma Steer Through the Stormy Seas? - The year 2009 was marked by recession, industry megamergers, and venture-capital scarcity. How did biopharmaceutical professionals fare? - BioPharm
Because of the economic situation and stresses on the pharmaceutical industry, we expected our survey respondents to have
serious concerns about job security. Surprisingly, their sense of security hasn't changed much compared to last year. In 2009,
68% of respondents said they feel "secure," "very secure," or "extremely secure" in their current jobs (Figure 3), only down
a little bit from last year's figure of 71%.
Figure 4. Effect of downsizing, restructuring, a merger, or an acquisition
Industry consolidation is affecting companies throughout the industry, however. More than half (53%) of our respondents have
been through a merger, acquisition, or downsizing within the last two years), although almost half of them (49%) said it had
no significant effect on them (Figure 4). The rest said their job responsibilities changed (32%) as a result of a merger or
downsizing activity or that they chose to leave their companies voluntarily (8%).
Figure 5. Reasons for possibly leaving current position
So are biotech professionals still confident enough to risk job changes in this economy? Our survey shows that a lot of people
are sitting tight. The majority of respondents (65%) said they are not likely to leave their jobs in the next 12 months, compared
to 60% last year. For those who expect to change jobs, the reasons are split between positive and negative: about a third
(32%) cited involuntary departure but 25% said they would make a move for a better salary or more satisfying work (20%), as
shown in Figure 5.
