Booming life science industry

"The life science industry is more resilient than most to fluctuations in the economy. We witnessed huge growth in Asia during 2009 and demand for staff outstripped supply by a considerable margin,” says Martin Grindrod, manager of Hays Pharma in Singapore. Grindrod gives his take:“There are no signs this will slow down. It has been estimated that the total number of people employed by the life sciences sector in Asia as a whole tops the 2.3 million mark.

Across Asia we are witnessing more companies opening new sites in clinical research, manufacturing, vaccines and biologics to name but a few. The number of job vacancies this will create is hard to accurately predict, but we do expect double digit growth across the board over the next four or five years.

The pool of available talent, particularly those with the necessary skills and experience, is running extremely low.

According to the July to September Hays quarterly report, employers will be aggressive in their hiring activities. In Singapore there is increased demand for professionals within the biomanufacturing space, which stems from continued inward investment in the area. Abbott Nutrition’s recently opened powder plant has played a large role. Many more companies are planning on doing the same over the next year or so in order to take advantage of economies of scale and reduced costs per hire.

More and more companies are relocating their clinical operations to China so we expect to see a continued rise in those types of job vacancies there. In particular there is high demand within clinical research as well as in commercial, manufacturing, medical and medical affairs, government affairs and biostatistics data management. In Japan, sales people with industry experience are highly sought after as many pharmaceutical companies are launching new drugs into the local market. This demand is expected to continue over the next 12 months."