Life Science Skill Need influencing entry salaries: Supply and Demand in the USA and in Europe

I recently had a chat with a colleague who made his career in the US. Boston Massachusetts region sees its pool of Life Science skills depleted. Salaries have skyrocketed and young graduates from PhD and Post-Doc programmes draw salaries of $150’000 US Dollar or higher. This development is fuelled by investor-driven biotech companies feverishly working on new treatments. Most of these research programmes are in early stages of clinical development and carry a high risk of failure.

I first thought I heard wrong. This sounded like another world. In the DACH region, Life Science profiles are indeed in high demand (key word MINT), but over the past 20 years I did not observe such fierce competition levels to acquire young talents nor see such record high salaries. Quite the contrary, new M.Sc. and PhD graduates in chemistry, biology, biotechnology, or pharmacy increasingly have to accept temporary positions to enter pharma industry. What counts is the opportunity to gain relevant experiences. After two years or so, the situation will ease and the labour market opens up. For most of them, however, 150’000 Swiss francs salaries do not become reality before 10 years of professional activity.

But I would wish that the European market identifies the potential offered by so-called inherently risky research-driven companies and above all the tremendous potential represented by highly educated Life Scientists.