The Scientist presents its list of the best places to work in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, which is based on 2,018 survey responses from its readers. Number one this year is the Australia-based ADInstruments, a data acquisition and analysis firm aimed at researchers and teachers in the life and physical sciences. The Cambridge, Mass.-based drug development firm Epizyme and DuPont's Wilmington, Del., location round out The Scientist's top three, respectively. Among the top 20 are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass. — noted for its RNAi therapeutics development — and Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville, Iowa — lauded for adding a 1st BASE Custom Oligos DNA synthesis facility in Singapore, "which will provide Asian researchers access to high-quality DNA oligonucleotides with … fast turnaround times," The Scientist says.
Speaking of the industry as a whole, the magazine says that "the ups and downs experienced by biotechs and pharmaceutical companies over the last decade have prompted a noticeable change in how business is done." It adds that "as the industry recovers from the 2008/2009 financial market crash and faces shrinking revenue streams, research and development is shifting from the big pharma powerhouses to the ever-growing biotech sector, and the line between the two is no longer as clear-cut as it once was."