Transcript Professional Development Lecture 1 Research: The Big Picture

Professional Development
Lecture 4
A career in
Industry vs. Academia
Peter Rose
[email protected]
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Agenda
• What differentiates industrial from academic
jobs?
• Where do You fit in?
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My Background
• 3-year apprenticeship at Bayer
• Ph.D. at Technical University of Munich in Organic &
Computational Chemistry
• Postdoc at UC Irvine in Quantum Chemistry
• Agouron Pharmaceuticals, La Jolla
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Started as PI on NIH grant, hired 4 postdocs
Became Department Head Computational Chem. & Bioinformatics
First product launch: Viracept
Agouron acquired Alanex Corporation
Acquired by Warner-Lambert/Park-Davis
Acquired by Pfizer
Pfizer acquired Pharmacia
• Scientific Lead, Protein Data Bank, UCSD
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Drug Discovery & Development
Cost ~ $800-900 Million
Patent life: 20 years
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/corporate/research/drug_discovery_process/drug_discovery_process.html
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Industry vs. Academia
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Freedom
Funding
Timescale and Change
Products
Team work
Work environment
Career advancements
Salary & benefits
Biotech vs. Pharma
Postdoc: Industry vs. Academia
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1 – Be your own boss?
Industry
Academia
• You choose the company and
department – but choices may be
limited (currently)
• Choose your boss carefully, if you
can!
• Market drives product needs
• You will be assigned to projects
• Overall goal of project most likely
set from start
• Few opportunities to pursue side
tracks
• Driven by your ideas and research
experience
• Dependent on
– Available positions
– Departmental research
directions
– Funding opportunities
• Ability to pursue side tracks can
lead to new discoveries
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2 – Funding
Industry
• Startups
– Grants (SBIR, STTR)
– Venture capital
– IPO
• Biotech
– Collaborations with large
companies – milestone
payments or royalties
• Large Pharma
Academia
• Expected to bring funding
through grants
• University takes a large
portion of your grant as
overhead
• Research directions may be
influenced by funding
opportunities
– Profitable
– Patent expiration an issue
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3 – Timescale and Change
Industry
Academia
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Time pressure
Short-term market driven focus
Pragmatic problem solving
Fast fail paradigm – proof of
concept (Go/No-Go decision)
• Stage gates – portfolio
management (decision points)
• Frequent change in direction due
to competition, regulatory
changes, failure in clinic
• Reorganization, Mergers &
Acquisitions
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Longer-term focus
Grant renewals
Side projects
In-depth investigations
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4 – Product
Industry
Academia
• Primary product a drug,
diagnostic, hardware, software
• Technological advancements
• Industrialization of processes
(faster, cheaper, better quality, …)
• Focus on achieving product
success on time
• Unmet clinical need & market size
• Focus on “Block Buster” drugs
• Primary product is publication
• Number of citations
• Novel research - breakthrough
discoveries
• Teaching and training
• Can focus on commercially
unattractive projects, i.e. third
world diseases
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5 – Team Work
Industry
• Multidisciplinary project
teams
• Need to develop interest
and knowledge in other
disciplines
• Successful project outcome
is the goal
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Academia
• More individualistic and
specialized in a domain
• Competition for tenure,
prestige, grants
• Fewer, more selective
collaborations
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Multidisciplinary Drug Discovery
Example Biological Aspects
Absorption
Bioavailability
Distribution
Active/
Passive Transport
Metabolism
Biological Target
Protein
(enzyme, receptor,
Excretion
Binding
transporter)
Binding affinity
Selectivity
Toxicity
Cell-based
Cytotoxicity
assays
Cell
Drug-Drug
Interactions
Animal Model
Permeability
Dose
Efficacy
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6 – Work Environment
Industry
Academia
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More structured
Core working hours
Mentoring
Interaction with peers from many
disciplines and age groups
Regular project meetings
Infrastructure streamlined to do your
work
Various service departments help
with purchasing, IT, instrumentation,
facilities
Delegate work
Professional project management
Goal setting and performance
evaluations
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Informal
Flexible schedule
Teaching and mentoring
Interaction with students, postdocs,
researchers
Need to build your own
infrastructure to a large extend, but
you have choices (equipment,
computers)
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7 – Information Sharing
Industry
Academia
• Patents, trade secrets, nondisclosure agreements
• Freedom to operate
• All public disclosures need to be
approved by Legal Department
• Cannot show chemical structures
or other proprietary information
unless patented and approved by
Legal.
• May need to use surrogate data
in publications
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Free access to data
Open access literature
Websites
Publish or perish
Review process
High impact journals
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8 – Career Advancements
Industry
Academia
• Dual career track in larger
organizations
• Before tenure
– Postdoc
– Assistant professor
– Research track
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Research Associate (B.S., M.S.)
Research Scientist (Ph.D.)
Senior Scientist
Principal Scientist
Research Fellow
• After tenure
– Associate professor
– Full professor
– Dean, Department Chair, …
– Management track
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Manager
Associate Director
Director
Vice President
– Note: Titles are not comparable
among companies
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9 – Salary & Benefits
Industry
• Good salary and benefits
• Consulting work – often
conflict of interest
• Travel & conference business-essential
• Training courses
– Technical
– Leadership
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Academia
• Salary ok after tenure
• Opportunity for consulting
work
• Entrepreneurship
– UCSD CONNECT
• Frequent travel &
conferences
• Sabbaticals
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10 – Biotech vs. Large Pharma
Biotech
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R & (D in collaboration)
Concerns
– Burn rate
– All eggs in one basket
– Lack of expertise and resources in
some areas of drug discovery
– Uncertainty
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Opportunities
– Fast decision making
– Become the leader in your area of
expertise
– Cutting edge science and technology
– Stock options
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R & D, L & D (licensing & development)
Concerns
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Slow decision making , committees, rules
Time to market
Increasing cost
Success-rate of clinical trials
Regulations: FDA, MediCare, …
Merger & acquisitions
Reorganization & downsizing
Outsourcing
Opportunities
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Resources are available to do your job
Transfers within company
Research and management track
Higher salary and better benefits
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Postdoc
Industry
Academia
• Apply your current research
expertise to a problem in drug
discovery
• Might be a good choice if you are
unsure about your career path
• May lead to a permanent job
• Does the company have a
postdoc program?
• How much independent research
can you do?
• Can you publish your results?
• Talk to former or current
postdocs in the company, read
their publications
• Choose a research topic that is
different/complementary to your
Ph.D. research, i.e.
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– Biology <-> Structural Biology
– Genomics <-> Proteomics
– Experimental <-> Computational
• Take risks – explore cutting edge
research
• Equal opportunities for industrial
and academic careers
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Where do You fit in?
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Are you passionate about your research?
What is your area of expertise?
Do you like to work as part of a team?
Do you prefer hands-on research over writing
papers?
• How much time do you want to dedicate to
your job?
• How important is a flexible schedule to you?
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Types of Industrial
Research/Careers
Small Molecule Drugs
Biologics
Vaccines
Diagnostics
Medical Devices
Other
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Scientific software
Intellectual property/patents
Project management
Business development & strategic alliances
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Discussion/Questions?
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