Pharmaceutical Industry The pharmaceutical drug discovery and development industry has grown to become one of the most profitable in the world. During the last 30 years, the industry has blossomed, with billions of dollars spent on research in biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, immunology, genetics, and information technology--and billions of dollars in profits earned by drug companies. Indeed, in 2003, the pharmaceutical industry sold some $466 billion in drugs.
But the process that turns this rich research into medicines that can help patients is a slow and often heartbreaking one. It now takes an average of 15 years and $800 million to $900 million to nurture a drug from initial discovery through FDA approval. Despite the billions companies spend every year on drug development, the FDA approves only a handful of drugs each year. Each stage of development is fraught with high failure rates; even when a company has proven efficacy and safety through a prescribed series of clinical trials, there's still a 25 percent chance its drug application will not be approved by the FDA. Despite the odds, though, the prize is grand enough for the few who hit the blockbuster-drug jackpot that an ever-increasing number of companies is willing to gamble that their product will be the next to reach $1 billion in annual sales. Links Of The Day
The industry can be divided into two broad categories: pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies. Pharmaceutical companies make medicines from plant- and chemical-based compounds. Biotechnology companies seek to duplicate or change the function of a living cell to make it work in a more predictable or controllable way.
Though formulating medicinal compounds is an ancient practice, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry as we know it began when companies developed large-scale manufacturing processes during the 19th century. Biotechnology, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer; the first companies formed almost a century later, in the 1970s, and the first biotech drug brought to market--human insulin produced in genetically modified bacteria--was not approved by the FDA until 1983. Born out of Watson and Crick's 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA and Cohen and Boyles's 1973 success in transplanting a single piece of DNA from a toad into a bacterium, biotechnology uses genetic research to develop products for human diseases and conditions.
Though job opportunities in pharma and biotech largely mirror each other, there are notable differences between the two. Because many biotech firms are still developing their initial products, they are much more focused on research. This means jobs for nonscientists are scarcer in biotech than in pharma. Biotech firms tend to expand their marketing and sales forces when--and if--a viable product nears FDA approval. And it's become common for small companies to seek alliances with larger companies that already have the requisite infrastructure in place for these functions.
Another difference between pharma and biotech is size. In 2002, the entire biotech industry spent some $20 billion on R&D; in 2003, just the top five Big Pharma companies spent nearly $23 billion on R&D. And the largest pharmaceutical firms employ as many as 100,000 people, while Amgen, the largest biotech company, has fewer than 13,000 employees. This means that pharmaceutical companies tend to be more structured and hierarchical--more corporate--than biotech firms, which generally have a more chaotic, egalitarian, and improvisational work culture.
Biotech and pharma have been performing exceedingly well relative to other industries in recent years. And while there are problems lurking in the shadows at some companies, overall the future looks bright for these industries. Though there is plenty of public controversy (e.g., the moral and ethical questions surrounding genomic and the pricing and patent practices of Big Pharma), demand for drugs is growing, fueled by an aging population and blossoming international markets. Regardless of whether you choose to work for Big Pharma or small biotech, don't get too attached to the status quo. These days, the business environment can change overnight. One need only look at recent biotech stock volatility for ample evidence of that. And as one insider says, "Even in Big Pharma, if there's a merger or a spin-off, you can easily find yourself without a job."
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About the author: Manik Thapar (MBA) http://www.careerpath.cc