Mass. sees jump in biotech jobs

Massachusetts biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry employment reached an all-time high of 46,553 in 2009, industry trade group MassBio reveals in a new report. The group also reports that employment in the biopharma industry grew 19.7 percent between 2005 and 2009, while overall state employment grew by five percent. "Despite the difficult economy, we continue to be the top choice for biotech and pharmaceutical companies looking to discover the latest cures and therapies, and the top...

PRA plans to hire up to 150 biotech workers

CRO PRA International is planning to hire between 100 and 150 clinical research associates and project managers in the Philadelphia area. PRA is taking advantage of a life sciences grant program that helps employers pay some of the expenses that come with training a new employee. The CRO could get up to $3,600 from the Life Science Career Alliance for each individual hired and trained while the program is ongoing....

Mass. biotech recruiters filling hundreds of positions

Several big biotech outfits in Massachusetts have hundreds of new positions to fill. Quite a few of these jobs are relatively low-level positions for manufacturing ops, but top jobs aren't always filled so quickly. "We have way too many applicants for entry-level jobs, but few candidates for regulatory affairs positions, and we have seven open," Jodi Allen, Shire's head of global recruitment, tells MassHighTech. Genzyme has 608 positions to fill while Shire is hiring 180 more new...

PhDs face a tough job market as biotechs get lean and mean

Looking for hard evidence of just how hard it can be to land a science job in R&D today? You only needed to turn out for UC San Francisco's biotech career fair, where only five developers bothered to send representatives. Industry insiders told the online news site Mission Loc@l that the meager turnout--the fair drew 20 or more biotech companies in the good old days--is the result of research failures, M&A activity and a long-running recession. Travis...

Biotechs cater to the most creative scientists

After Robert Sebra completed his PhD in biochemical engineering a few years ago, he landed a job at Pacific Biosciences, an upstart genetic sequencing company that is out to revolutionize the way drugs are developed and used. And company officials didn't blink an eye when Sebra continued to dress according to his own "weird fashion sense." It turns out that the life sciences' embrace of the new and different entails a considerable willingness to employ scientists who think outside the box in...