AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
Biotech leaders express deep concern about the industry’s current “biotech winter,” a prolonged downturn causing company shutdowns, layoffs, and a talent exodus. They highlight the loss of valuable knowledge and the challenge of finding new full-time positions. Former CEOs like Dunsire emphasize the difficulty nurturing new ideas due to financial strains on universities and worries about the future job market. The potential loss of high-paying jobs could force talent to leave biotech hubs like Massachusetts, impacting the local economy and future of scientific discovery. The current climate is causing experts to rethink career advice for young scientists.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
”Everybody gave the best of what they could do. Working weekends and working really, really hard,” says Verhelle.
“I’ve just got so many colleagues that are shutting down their companies or doing [reductions in force] or are not able to fund raise,” says Daphne Zohar, founder and CEO of Boston-based Seaport Therapeutics. “So you’ve got the ecosystem disruption of a huge amount of people who are going to be looking for work.” Plus, she says, “there’s so much knowledge embedded” in companies, and there’s often no good way to capture it.
“We’ve seen downturns before,” she notes, but not a “biotech winter that lasted as long as this one has.”
In recent decades, Dunsire says, we’ve seen the advent of cutting-edge technologies, such as immunotherapies. But the road from concept to approved medication is long, and she worries that transformative medicines are not being funded in the way they once were.
“We are going to see unemployment in the industry be at a scary level for a while,” says Grace Colón, who has worked in biotech for decades, and has invested as a venture capitalist. “It’s going to be hard for a lot of people to find new, full-time positions. I think they’ll have to resort to consulting and contracting for a while.”
Dunsire says that Boston has “attracted talent from all over the world.” But, she warns, “if we are closing companies, we’re going to start to lose a complement of high-paying jobs. And people will then have to think about maybe leaving Massachusetts. I think every state with a biotech center will grapple with this, but it’s a big component of the Massachusetts economy.”
Dunsire is also deeply concerned about the ability of universities to nurture new ideas, given their financial strain. She cites the massive dislocation going on at Harvard, as well as at other schools. These are “challenges to foreign graduates coming into our PhD programs and master’s programs,” she argues. “That, I think, will affect the feedstock that enables discovery.”
Four years ago, she says, if a young person asked her what they should study, she would tell them: “‘Oh, go into biology, go into chemistry. There is so much work there. You’re going to have a nice career.’ Now, I don’t think I would say that because I’m like: ‘Oh my God, I don’t know if you’re going to have a job in four years.’”
Follow Kara Miller @karaemiller.
