With the focus shifting to R&D and manufacturing of biotech-based drugs, its good news for biotechnology professionals.

Winds of change are blowing through the Indian pharmaceutical industry. More and more pharma companies are looking at biotech-based pharma products. Restructuring is the buzzword. Following news snippets in the last two months will give indications on the hiring-mart.

• Nicholas Piramal India Ltd, a BioSpectrum Top 20 company and one of the leading pharmaceutical healthcare companies in India, is expanding its operations and recruiting another 100 scientists.

• Torrent Pharma, an Ahmedabad-based pharma major is recruiting 100 scientists taking its total strength within the company from 190 to 290.

• Zydus Cadila, another Ahmedabad-based healthcare solutions company with a strong base of 200 scientists, is adding another 100 scientists to its team.

• Alembic Ltd, a Baroda-based pharma company, has planned to increase the number of scientists on its rolls from 100 to 250,

• Similarly, Cadila Pharmaceuticals plans to increase its strength from 150 to 200.

The trend is completely in favor of increased activity in bio-pharma. The marked change in human resource development initiatives is not hard to comprehend. In view of the forthcoming products patents regime, pharma companies have identified R&D as one of the key growth drivers. With a high premium on R&D and many new avenues such as clinical research, contract research, developing new drug delivery systems and new chemical entities opening up before the Indian pharma companies, the demand for qualified trained professionals in related fields is growing. Not just the Indian companies, but several MNCs are looking at India to set shop to gain the cost, time, and the trained manpower advantage as R&D costs in their home countries are very high.

Dr SD Ravetkar, senior director, Serum Institute of India, said, "The potential for Indian BioPharma segment is huge. With the implementation of WTO and patents regime in 2005, Indian companies would not be able to do backward engineering of the drugs, so they are focusing on in-house R&D. The growth prospects are bright as many contract research organizations are coming up. Besides, a large number of foreign pharma companies are setting their R&D divisions here." Serum Institute is one of the largest exporter of vaccines and immunobiologicals of the country with its products being exported to about 38 countries across the globe.

"The sector calls for professionals from various fields as biopharma is the cocktail of so many faculties—microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, chemistry, biotechnology and more. It requires candidates with diverse qualifications—microbiologists for the manufacturing process, biochemists for the down stream processing, immunologists for animal trials, biotech engineers for bulk manufacturing processes or process standardizing, etc." he added.

What are they looking for?

Traditional pharmacology is increasingly being considered as the downstream processing of biotech-based pharma. With this change in focus, the requirements of pharma companies at the entry level are also changing. Besides, regular pharma graduates and postgraduates, the industry is looking towards MSc and PhD candidates possessing specialized knowledge. The field requires people trained in new technologies with specialized skills, like immunoblotting, protein/genome analysis, western blotting etc. And in today’s scenario candidates possessing these skills are rare. The responsibility and specialization of the individual will depend on the process, which he or she is handling—fermentation technology, downstream processing, proteomics, genomics, etc.

"We are looking at people with a good background in biotechnology, biochemistry, or microbiology. Some basic technical skill is a must. At the same time they should have good understanding and reasoning capabilities, in addition to good communication skills and the ability to understand scientific literature," said Dr Shama Bhat, chairman and managing director, Bhat Biotech, a nine year old Bangalore-based biotech company specializing in design development, manufacture and marketing of diagnostic test devices for various types of tests like hepatitis, pregnancy, HIV.

Varaprasad Reddy, CMD, Shantha Biotechnics, further elaborated, "The biotech industry is a knowledge-intensive one and human resource is its prime asset and strength. Quite like the IT sector was in the early Nineties, the biotech sector too is witnessing a lot of hype leading to expectations and is definitely a sunrise sector for any job-seeker. Hence, there is demand for qualified and experienced personnel. For the R&D job seeker, what is needed is the right exposure to the scientific way of working and the mindset to experiment and innovate. And patience to see R&D translate into commercial success.

For people wishing to enter into other functions like sales and marketing, it would be easier as experience in a good pharmaceutical or FMCG company backed by an MBA qualification would be good enough. Also doctors wishing to enter the corporate world can find opportunities in Clinical Trials and be responsible for conducting trials and regulatory approvals."

Clearly R&D, manufacturing and production, and sales and marketing are the main job categories in the Biopharma field. The importance of R&D is obvious and proper manufacturing is equally important so as to confirm to the international standards of cGMP. Also since most of the products are targeted at the global markets, they should conform to the export specifications. According to Dr Ravetkar ideally the distribution of manpower in companies developing new biotech-based cures should be equal in both research and manufacturing. "The main thrust of most companies is towards these two, while marketing and sales form the smaller divisions. This is because at present this field being new, products being less, there is little competition. The main challenge is R&D and manufacturing of the product rather than marketing the product," he said.

For companies dealing in the diagnostics market, marketing is an equally important field due to the higher number of products in this sector. For example in Bhat Biotech the distribution of employees across the categories is about 50 percent in research, 30 percent in production and 20 percent in marketing.

How are companies recruiting?

For recruiting candidates at the entry level, most companies advertise in the leading national dailies or in the careers/jobs section on their websites. After the resumes are received candidates are short-listed through one-to-one interviews or sometimes written tests followed by an interview. Some companies arrange for walk-in interviews or go for campus recruitment also. "We also go for campus recruitment in Pune University, Hyderabad University and Bombay University. In the interview we mainly consider the attitude of the student. There are three important points that we keep in mind while selecting candidates: their basic qualification, any additional courses they have done, which adds value like bioinformatics or courses in bioinstrumentation. And good project work," elaborated Dr Ravetkar.

"Basically the students should possess a basic/fundamental science degree and then do some supportive course. We have found another efficient method of selection—by absorbing candidates who come to do their MSc dissertation projects at Serum Institute. This way we get to know the students better, work with them at close quarters and are thus are able to assess them better. Sometimes we have seen that though their (students) academic results are not very good but they have a flair for R&D and do good research work. Another important consideration is good communication ability and confidence in oneself."

A common advice by pharma majors to aspiring candidates is to hone their skills. As, ironically on one side, the sector has a requirement of a large number of people and on the other hand there is an acute dearth of adequately trained students. Most of them do have a strong theoretical background but do not possess enough practical skills. Students need to gain hands-on experience in the new upcoming branches of science. It is not that companies are not willing to train but the cost of training in terms of time is high. On an average investing in human capital, i.e., training a fresh person requires about a year, which also many a times goes waste when they go for greener pastures. Thus a minimum work experience of two to three years is gaining priority and provides a crucial selection edge.

Further, several of the leading companies believe that the science colleges should try and make their students the best just like the management colleges, which promote their students. Like management companies, they should also invite premier companies for campus recruitment. They should invest in training and guiding the students.

The salaries of researchers in pharma companies are appropriate, merit based and have begun to reflect the growing demand for skilled people. "The PhDs get remuneration in the range of Rs 5 lakh and above per annum," said Reddy. The growth potential for employees is good, as it is a nascent industry. Generally employees who perform well are sent for technology development training programs both in the country and abroad, like Serum Institute sends its employees to the US and UK for training in cGMP and production techniques.

As developing new biotech-based solutions has become the main focus area for the pharma companies the demand for the scientists is expected to continue to grow. The characteristics of this business as opposed to those in other biotech segments like bioagri and bioinformatics is different too. Reddy explained, "This business is highly capital-intensive and needs a lot of R&D focus. Since development times are higher for biotech products, the employees need to have focus and motivation as well as determination to see the product through to market. Also since regulatory framework is not very industry-friendly, a lot of effort is needed for clearances and approvals." Finally, there are no stereotypes in the biotech world, except for the desire to make an impact on the world of disease.

Rolly Dureha

Rolly Dureha