For 2016 Smith Hanley Associates is proud to announce the return of Tracey Gmoser to our Biostatistics practice. We are excited to have her 30 years of client and candidate experience to lead our Biostatistics team. Nihar Parikh will also bring his 10+ years of statistical recruiting experience to this practice area. This Clinical Practice will join our existing Commercial Practice in Analytics led by Eda Zullo and Sales Recruiting headed up by Nancy Ragonese, to offer more complete and broad services to our pharmaceutical customers.
Top 3 Trends for 2016
1. Candidate movement to smaller pharma/biotech companies leads to higher base salaries as companies have to off set the loss of long term incentives given by big pharma.
2. Continued mergers/ acquisitions in the pharma industry create opportunities for candidates willing to relocate.
3. The hot buzz word, Big Data, is impacting all areas of the pharma industry including clinical. In-house data scientists and project work outsourced to vendors is creating new markets and innovations in existing businesses.
Commercial Analytics
In contrast to the start of 2015, pharmaceutical companies are kicking off 2016 with an influx of hiring. Advanced Analytics will always be a critical and much needed functional area for pharma. All size companies, big, mid –sized and start-up biotech will need experts with these skill sets: Forecasting, Sales Operations, and Brand /Business Analytics.
Commercial Sales
One of the biggest changes taking place for 2016 in the US pharmaceutical sales job market is a move toward a wider product bandwidth for pharma sales professionals. The best pharmaceutical Sales Representatives are able to adapt their sales skills to better match today’s more intuitive, flexible marketing strategies. “In-house/ home office” roles such as Sales Operations and Sales Training are other viable options for sales professionals looking to gain depth and breadth in the industry while progressing in their career development.
Biostatistics
2015 saw big and small pharma and biotech expanding their rare disease Therapeutic Areas. This dovetails with R & D funding in personalized medicine and immune therapy especially in oncology. Adaptive trial designs and Bayesian methodology continue to be important tools giving statisticians added flexibility as trial data comes in. Companies are looking for ways to use third party data as a tool for insights before designing trials for new drug development. Clients expect more Biostatistics hiring in 2016 than in 2015. Right now there is a mix of early and full development Biostatisticians and we anticipate there will be specialty hiring in methods and new big data groups as companies look for different analytical skills to optimize the large amounts of information available.
We would be happy to discuss any of these trends or your needs for 2016 further. As always, Smith Hanley Associates is happy to be your recruiting resource for Commercial and Clinical opportunities in health care.>br>
Eda Zullo, Commercial Analytics, ezullo@smithhanley.com, 203-319-4309
Nancy Ragonese, Commercial Sales, nragonese@smithhanley.com, 203-319-4315
Tracey Gmoser, Biostatistics, tgmoser@smithhanley.com, 203-319-4300
Nihar Parikh, Biostatistics, nparikh@smithhanley.com, 312-589-7581