Biotech and pharmaceutical positions on the three representative job databases tracked by Nature Biotechnology (Tables 1 and 2) were mixed in the third quarter of 2010. Compared with the second quarter (Nat. Biotechnol. 28, 875, 2010), the two largest biotechs, Monsanto (St. Louis) and Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA), saw increased job postings whereas most others remained flat or declined. Instrument makers PerkinElmer (Waltham, MA, USA) and Illumina (San Diego) also maintained their hiring pace.

Table 1 Who's hiring? Advertised openings at the 25 largest biotech companies
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Table 2 Advertised job openings at the ten largest pharma companies
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The Boston area was hit hard in particular. Genzyme (Cambridge, MA, USA) announced the reduction of its workforce by 1,000 employees or about 10% over the next 15 months, due to the divestment of its Genzyme Genetics unit to Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings. And Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) said it would restructure and reduce head count by ∼25–30% after completing the fifth and final year of an RNA interference (RNAi) discovery deal with Novartis. Novartis has finalized its selection of 31 disease targets for which it has exclusive rights to discover, develop and commercialize RNAi therapeutics. Alnylam is eligible for development and sales milestones on therapeutics developed against the selected targets. The company said it expects the restructuring to save about $25 million in operating expenses in 2011.

Table 3 shows additional selected third quarter downsizings within the life sciences industry.

Table 3 Selected biotech and pharma downsizings
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