If you’re interested in pursuing a career in the biopharma industry, these 11 world-class firms would be a great place to begin your search.
The past decade has been good to the biopharma industry, as NIBRT’s Killian O’Driscoll told us at the company’s biopharma careers event earlier this month.
“There’s been over €10bn of capital investment and there’s predicted to be nearly 9,000 new jobs by the year 2020,” he explained.
It can be hard to get a grasp on what biopharma players are up to at any given time, as legal regulatory practices encourage leaders to be tight-lipped about their latest offerings, however exciting and potentially revolutionary they may be. Unquestionably, though, there are some exciting things brewing on Irish soil.
As we’ve previously reported, Ireland has the privilege of being home to 10 out of 10 of the top pharmaceutical firms in the world and is the seventh-largest global exporter of pharmaceuticals, according to IDA Ireland.
There are a myriad of companies working on life-saving products that are being distributed around the world. We rounded up 11 such companies here, all of which are hiring right now.
Sanofi
Sanofi (sometimes also known as Sanofi Genzyme) is a French pharma multinational. The company is the product of Sanofi acquiring US-based biotechnology giant Genzyme in 2011.
Earlier this year, the company revealed plans to acquire Belgian biopharma firm Ablynx for €3.9bn in a bid to further expand its global reach.
Sanofi has available roles in research and development (R&D), manufacturing, medical and sales as well as having positions for students and graduates.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)
BMS was founded after two companies with a long history in the US – the Squibb corporation and Bristol-Myers – merged in 1989.
The firm’s new sprawling biologics facility based in Cruiserath has garnered lots of attention, particularly since it marks the first time in BMS history that its manufacturing is taking place outside of the US.
The company is seeking applicants for a range of positions.
Regeneron
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The company was founded by its current CEO, Leonard S Schleifer, MD, in 1988.
In 2008, the FDA approved the company’s first medicine, Arcalyst, an injectable drug used in the treatment of cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome, which is a group of rare, heterogeneous auto-inflammatory diseases that cause symptoms in the eyes, joints, skin and central nervous system.
Regeneron is hiring for roles in R&D, industrial operations and regulatory affairs, among others.
Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI)
GMI is an early-stage life sciences start-up founded in 2015 by Daniel Crowley and Terry McGuire.
The company, which is working on treatments for Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, received an influx of seed funding in 2016 and with it created 150 jobs in Ireland.
GMI hopes to create a scientific platform to examine how the human genome can be leveraged to deepen the general understanding of how genetics are related to rare conditions and diseases, and how this can be channelled into the development of new advanced therapies.
The start-up is recruiting for positions in bio-information and quality improvement.
MSD
Following the company’s merger with Schering-Plough in 2009, MSD became the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical company with operations in more than 140 countries.
The company has a broad spectrum of health competencies, and produces everything from oral contraceptives to allergy medicine.
According to the MSD website, it has the distinction of having discovered vitamin B1 and developing the first measles vaccine.
MSD has open roles in microbiology, upstream and downstream operations, and HR.
AbbVie
AbbVie targets specific difficult-to-cure diseases by leveraging its core R&D expertise. It produces the best-selling drug on the market, Humira, which is used for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.
The company is hiring in the areas of R&D, manufacturing and operations, and IT.
Shire
Shire is headquartered in Dublin, and has a manufacturing facility in Dunboyne, Co Meath. It specialises in serving patients with rare diseases.
Its most well-known offerings include Vyvanse and Adderall, both used for the treatment of ADHD, and Lialda, used to treat Crohn’s disease.
Fellow pharma giant Takeda recently made a bid for Shire to the tune of $61bn; however, the attempted takeover was rejected.
The organisation is seeking applications for roles across a number of fields including quality assurance and control, and manufacturing.
Novartis
Novartis, hailing from Basel in Switzerland, was created in 1996 through a merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. The company creates products that are available in 155 countries worldwide and currently claims to have more than 200 new projects in its clinical pipeline.
Novartis produces drugs to treat a variety of ailments including (but not limited to) cancer and cardiometabolic syndrome, targeting areas such as neuroscience, immunology, dermatology and ophthalmology.
The pharma giant is looking to hire new people in the areas of technical design, clinical procurement, patient safety and business analysis.
Amgen
Amgen is one of the world’s largest biopharma firms, headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. While the company has a broad range of core competencies, some of its largest-selling product lines include drugs used to treat those undergoing cancer chemotherapy and those to help with autoimmune diseases.
Coming from humble beginnings (a staff of a mere three employees), the company was put on the map in the pharma world after Epogen, a human erythropoietin produced in cell culture using recombinant DNA technology, received FDA approval in 1989.
Amgen is recruiting for roles in quality assurance, quality control, engineering, manufacturing and information systems.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J)
J&J is arguably one of the most visible and well-known brands in the world, developing and manufacturing many medicine-cabinet staples such as Band-Aids, Johnson’s Baby products and Tylenol medications.
It also has a thriving pharmaceutical division, which operates under the name Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Janssen has poured hundreds of millions of euro worth of investment into its planned expansion to increase its existing Irish manufacturing operation in Cork.
The company is seeking applications for positions in production, quality control and engineering.
Takeda
Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceuticals has a heritage that stems back more than 230 years, and it has since grown to be the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and Asia.
The company announced at NIBRT’s annual biopharma careers event that it is constructing a new facility, with plant director Paul Keogh saying: “We’re looking for experienced candidates who have experience in aseptic processing, hopefully as well in stem cell manufacturing.”
Takeda is hiring for, in addition to those roles outlined by Keogh, positions in quality control.
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