WHAT'S IN STORE NEXT YEAR?
Figure 8. Do you think employment opportunities will rise in the next 12 months?
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Clearly the economy has taken a toll, and the year 2010 has been tough for the biopharmaceutical industry. Still, people voice
cautious optimism. "The economy is coming back slowly, and I think a majority of the people who were laid off will be hired,"
says the CMC professional from California. The majority of our survey respondents (68%) also think employment opportunities
will rise in the next 12 months (Figure 8).
"It is hard to say how it will pan out, as with biosimilars coming into the market, competition will increase, but the outlook
for biopharmaceutical industry looks promising in both the short- and long-term," says the CMC professional from California.
"There will be shake out and consolidation but it will drive innovation in the industry," he adds.
The QA professional from New Jersey agrees, "In general my view for the long-term is that we will have more competition in
biologics, less blockbusters." According to her, there is potential to increase overall revenue, "The size of the cake is
not going to increase but the slices will increase. The fields like upstream and downstream might be saturated but the drug
substance market will still benefit from having qualified professionals in regulatory and analytical."
Methodology and Demographics
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The biopharmaceutical professional from Boston has an interesting view, "We might not see great increase in salaries or bonuses,
but the economic crisis might strengthen employees' loyalty to companies, and we will see fewer employees changing jobs. Biopharmaceutical
companies will concentrate development on innovative products and focus on optimizing workflow," he adds.
Overall, BioPharm Inter-national's fifth annual international salary survey shows that despite increased workload and stress levels, biopharmaceutical professionals
are satisfied and feel secure in their current jobs. Perhaps Burrill summed it up best: "Going forward we will see a much
stronger industry evolve as companies implement their business strategies in response to the new economic realities."
Some biopharmaceutical professionals we interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity.
Chitra Sethi is the managing editor of BioPharm International, 732.346.3059, csethi@advanstar.com
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