Biotech companies are companies that are involved in the field of biological sciences. This includes medical research and development, as well as pharmaceuticals. Biotech companies, by their very nature, tend to be small. There were only three biotech companies in the year 2007 that had more than 5,000 employees. In contrast, there were over 500 pharmaceutical companies during the same year.
Compared to pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies tend to do much less rigorous testing on their drugs. Pharmaceuticals are usually subject to some of the industry’s most stringent regulations because there is a lot of money at stake if something goes wrong with your medicine. Pharmaceutical companies also have to follow strict rules regarding product quality and safety. The FDA in the United States sets forth very harsh rules concerning how pharmaceuticals are manufactured. In contrast, biotech companies do not have as many regulations that restrict them.
Benefits of Biotech companies
- Job creation
Some argue that biotech companies create jobs in high and low-skill positions. Pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies create many high-skilled jobs to ensure their products comply with regulations. They also require more skilled workers, such as scientists and engineers, who tend to be well paid. In the year 2007, there were over a million jobs created in the pharmaceutical industry. - Curiosity
Biotech companies are helping to answer questions that man has been asking for many years. Biotech companies are helping to solve global problems, such as the spread of disease, and understanding how we can fix that problem. - Financial growth
Many people see biotech companies as risky investments due to their low-profit margins. However, since there is still a lot of risk in the field, the biotech industry is growing rapidly. The risk also allows much room for innovation and creativity to develop instead of everyone in the field following the same standards or rules. - Expanding job fields
Biotech companies are not just looking to work on a single disease. They tend to specialize in a specific area, such as pharmaceuticals or research and development. This allows them to create jobs for people who specialize in that field. - Better jobs
While biotech is a very lucrative and workforce-intensive field, for example, pharmaceutical companies need lots of people to clean their factories and perform quality control and safety checks on their products.
Conclusion
Biotech companies are a good thing, but they are not for everyone. Even though many high-tech organizations are not creating as many jobs per hour as pharmaceutical companies or biotech companies, they have a lot of job security and generally have fewer hours.
One thing to keep in mind is that while the industry overall is growing, it’s still small compared to other sectors. So even if you don’t work for a biotech company, you still may need to work with that company at some point in your career.