As Biotech Expands in North Carolina, Employers Recruit at 'Talent Connect'
September 29, 2015
By Angela Rose, BioSpace.com News
Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device employers in greater North Carolina and Research Triangle Park are preparing for the Fall BioNC Talent Connect as life sciences activity within the hotbed region continues to accelerate. According to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the state is home to more than 600 life sciences companies and institutions employing 61,000 professionals and generating $73 billion in economic activity.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2009 to 2012 ranks the rate of life sciences employment growth in North Carolina ahead of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts. In fact, only California life sciences employment outpaced North Carolina’s during that period.
The owner of the largest contract manufacturing facility in North America, Durham-based Patheon Inc., began hiring in earnest this fall. The company—a leader of evolution in the pharma supply chain—plans to add nearly 500 jobs to its eastern North Carolina sterile-fill facility, a 1.5-million-square-foot complex spread across 29 buildings on 640 acres. Five new project managers have already been recruited in preparation for a hiring spree that should continue to 2019.
Australia-based Mayne Pharma is also hiring for its Greenville facility expansion. The organization, which develops and manufactures branded and generic pharmaceuticals, will add 110 employees over the next five years. New positions will include scientists, quality assurance specialists and manufacturing operators.
Job seekers who want to meet and network with representatives from Aerotek, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Duke Clinical Research Institute, ICQ Consultants, Corp., Quintiles Transnational, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and other North Carolina life sciences employers can do so at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel on October 6 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Each organization will be conducting on-site in-depth private interviews with candidates as they recruit for multiple job openings.
Pre-registration for the event is required, as is the submission of a resume for pre-screening and approval for the one-on-one 15-minute interviews.
Earlier this year, Doug Edgeton, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, told BioSpace, “There’s always ebb and flow in pharma as companies merge, acquire and adjust strategies, but North Carolina remains well suited to capitalize on those dynamics. It’s a smart state, a business-friendly low-cost state, with a wide and deep life science infrastructure.”
The future of the center was recently in danger as the N.C. Senate considered budget cuts that would have eliminated $8.6 million in funding, leaving it on its own financially. “Life science companies across the state have communicated with legislators, explaining the impact the biotech center has on their business,” Edgeton told the Winston-Salem Journal in September. “Direct funding through loans and grants is always helpful, and the connections we help businesses make create a powerful ecosystem that fuels the sector’s growth. With this state support, life sciences will continue to be a bright spot in North Carolina’s future.”