Pharm Country Professionals Weigh In on Their Ideal Employers

The biotech Hotbed known as Pharm Country, which includes New Jersey, Connecticut, New York Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, is an area of rapid growth and change. As a result, it’s no wonder that some of the biggest companies in the world call this Hotbed home.

In BioSpace’s recently published 2019 Life Sciences Ideal Employer Report, more than 2,700 life sciences professionals weighed in on their Ideal Employers. BioSpace broke down the data to gain an insight into each of the BioSpace Hotbed regions and who those survey takers thought should be considered Ideal Employers. Similar to the Biotech Bay list and the top 10 list for Genetown, BioSpace takes a look at the top 10 2019 Life Sciences Ideal Employer Report’s for Pharm Country.

1. Johnson & Johnson – Headquartered in New Brunswick, N.J., life sciences giant Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest employers across the region. The company has numerous divisions and that means it has its hands in numerous pies. The company closed out 2019 with the acquisition of Verb Surgical, a company that has a strong robotics and data science capabilities. And even though 2020 is only a few days old, J&J announced it is seeking nominations for the Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research Issues. The award “celebrates dedicated researchers and champions of science whose basic or clinical discoveries have made, or have the potential to make, significant contributions toward improving human health.”
2. Merck – The number two company in Pharm Country is Merck, which came in at number three on the overall list. The company is riding high on the success of many approved drug products, particularly its tent pole oncology drug Keytruda, which is pegged at becoming the best-selling drug in the world. It’s also seen great success with Lynparza, the PARP inhibitor it co-developed with AstraZeneca. Merck began the year with a keen focus on KRAS mutations. The company struck a deal with Taiho and Astex to develop small molecule inhibitors against several drug targets, including the KRAS oncogene, which are currently being investigated for the treatment of cancer
3. Pfizer – In Pharm Country, Pfizer slips one spot from its overall Ideal Employer Survey ranking of number two to take the third position. Pfizer began the year with news that Bavencio, a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, hit the mark in a Phase III trial focused on advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. The trial hit its primary endpoint of overall survival in comparison to best supportive care. Near the end of December, the company struck a deal worth up to $250 million with Theravance Biopharma for a preclinical program for skin-targeted, locally-acting pan-Janus kinase inhibitors that can be rapidly metabolized.
4. Bristol-Myers Squibb – New York-based BMS spent much of 2019 dealing with its $74 billion acquisition of Celgene. The company spent part of the past year divesting some assets in order for the merger with Celgene to be approved by regulatory agencies, but did find time to work on its pipeline. The company plans to seek approval for its acute myeloid leukemia treatment CC-486, which demonstrated that treatment with CC-486 as a maintenance therapy provided patients with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS), as compared to those patients treated with placebo.
5. Regeneron --- New York-based Regeneron fared much better in its own region with the fifth position. The company came in at number 15 in the overall listing. Regeneron has seen significant success through its partnership with Sanofi, which has yielded the blockbuster Dupixent. In December, the two companies announced a restructuring into a royalty-based agreement for their collaboration on the drugs Kevzara and Praluent. Sanofi is expected to gain sole global rights to Kevzara and sole ex-U.S. rights to Praluent. Regeneron is expected to gain sole U.S. rights to Praluent.
6. Novartis -- The company ranked #5 overall on the Ideal Employer survey and slips one place in Pharm Country. Over the past few years the Swiss pharma giant has been transforming its focus and has seen significant success in tackling multiple disease areas. Novartis closed out 2019 with by announcing the acceptance of a New Drug Application for Xolair as a treatment for nasal polyps in adult patients 18 years of age and older with inadequate response to intranasal corticosteroids. If approved, Xolair would become the first antibody to help reduce the size of nasal polyps and help improve symptoms through targeting and blocking immunoglobulin E.
7. Genentech – San Francisco-based Genentech, a division of Roche, comes in at the #7 spot in Pharm Country, but took the top spot in the overall Ideal Employer survey. The company saw a flurry of activity in December with clinical reports for drugs like Tecentriq, Perjeta and Herceptin. It also worked on Xolair with Novartis. Most recently, Genentech teamed up with Arcus Bioscience on two clinical trials evaluating Arcus’s AB928 with various Genentech compounds as a treatment for colorectal and pancreatic cancer.
8. Amgen -- California-based Amgen took the #4 spot on the overall Ideal Employer survey and comes in at number 8 in Pharm Country. In December it submitted a Biologics License Application to the FDA for ABP 798, a biosimilar candidate to Rituxan. The company began 2020 by forming a strategic collaboration with BeiGene that will significantly accelerate Amgen's plans to expand its oncology presence in China. Amgen acquired a 20.5% stake in the China-based company and BeiGene plans to commercialize three Amgen drugs in China, Xgeva, Blycento and Kyprolis.
9. Roche – The parent company to Genentech, Roche took the number 7 spot in the overall list. The company spent a good deal of 2019 meeting standards to acquire Spark Therapeutics, which it finally did in December. Shortly thereafter, Roche partnered with Sarepta Therapeutics to gain sole commercial rights to SRP-9001, Sarepta’s investigation gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), outside the U.S.
10. Janssen– A division of Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutical has seen significant success in its research programs. Janssen closed out 2019 by completing the acquisition of all rights to the investigational compound bermekimab, which has multiple dermatological indications. Bermekimab had been the property of XBiotech. The company began the year by opting out of a rights agreement Crohn’s disease asset in development by Provention Bio. Janssen decided it did not want the asset back after it failed in a Phase III trial.

As BioSpace notes in its Pharm Country report, not all of the companies included in this region made the 2019 Ideal Employer list, such as Janssen, Novo Nordisk and Spark Therapeutics. Some companies that did rank on the Ideal Employer List, such as Regeneron, rank higher here, most likely due to the fact its headquarters is located in Tarrytown, New York.