A Shifting Drug Industry Means New Opportunities in Translational Research

New opportunities

Despite all the changes, pharmaceutical companies are maintaining a strong internal development program in areas with large markets such as oncology, neuroscience, and diabetes/obesity; and they are hiring people whose skills fit with their drug-development programs. Furthermore, the shifts in the industry may herald a new, more fluid division of labor where nontraditional partnerships take on the earliest stages of drug development. "I think it may be up to smaller biotech companies and academia to come up with new drugs," Littman says. "And smaller biotech companies are very interested in generating biomarkers, working on proof of concept, and testing in smaller patient populations."

It's a modular approach to drug discovery and translational research that both FitzGerald and others believe will become prevalent. They also think this will necessitate changes in the way industry and academia handle things such as intellectual property. People choosing industry careers should be prepared and adaptable.

"I think there is a lot of uncertainty out there in the world right now," says Will West, chief executive at CellCentric, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, United Kingdom. "If you are a young graduate, I can see how basing a career in industry may seem like a difficult choice to make. I see the opposite. I think in a changing model, there is opportunity for bright people to take advantage of that change and be drivers for the solutions.