March 5, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Martin Rexroad is senior vice president of human resources at a pharmaceuticals company focused on the development of small molecule, orally administered treatments for orphan diseases. Headquartered in South Plainfield, New Jersey, PTC Therapeutics has seen booming growth and an over 50 percent increase in business in 2014, which ramped up hiring enormously. BioSpace chatted with Rexroad about how such rapid growth can affect an organization—and where the hiring trends will be in 2015.
BioSpace: What hiring trends are you seeing right now in your sector, and how have those been affected by such a boom year for biotech stocks?
Rexroad: Since there have been many changes in pharma in the last several years, such as the streamlining of departments and increased industry consolidation, we are seeing a trend towards individuals from the pharmaceutical industry looking for exciting and new opportunities. Due to maturations of biotech pipelines, positive data, a record number of FDA approvals and strong capital market support, biotech companies have become an attractive prospect for individuals who want to be involved in that success.
BioSpace: How many candidates would you say you see in an average year? Was that different in 2014?
Rexroad: 2014 was a transformative year for PTC. We completed our first full year as a public company, raised $236 million in follow on funding and we had our lead product approved in Europe, the first ever treatment for the underlying cause of a rare disease. To support the needs surrounding the approval in the EU, we hired approximately 80 individuals last year which were weighted toward the second half and resulted in a 50 percent increase over the previous year. Our expansion in 2014 which is continuing in 2015, is notable that it was a global expansion into over 25 countries and touched almost every facet of our business.
BioSpace: Where are you focusing on adding staff?
Rexroad: We are hiring across the organization, from research, clinical development, quality, regulatory affairs, marketing and sales, medical affairs, CMC and all of the G&A functions. As we have entered new countries, we have started by hiring key leaders, critically important hires for each market, and ones in which we focus on very carefully. We are also adding talent at every level of all functions to quickly increase organizational capability to meet our larger mission
BioSpace: What does your company look for most in a job candidate, that’s specific to your corporate culture?
Rexroad: As our CEO, Stuart Peltz, often states, “PTC is as much a cause as it is a company.” The people who best fit PTC are fulfilling their life’s purpose by focusing their energy on our work of serving patients with unmet needs. We look for people who have a spirit of innovation which requires world class experience, smarts, and unending amounts of persistence. Finally, we work as a community in which we have a group of nice people who truly care for one another and help each other. These elements of our culture allow us to accomplish the impossible—working at speeds and quality levels few organizations can achieve.
PTC was founded based on scientific excellence with a focus on the patient. We are passionate about discovering, developing, and bringing innovative treatments to patients with rare and neglected disorders. We work cross functionally, we learn from each other, and are adaptive. We support each other and have a commitment to the community. Given our deep commitment to these values, we are focused on finding people who are not only great at what they do, but are also an organizational fit. Those who will succeed and thrive at PTC are those who bring a breadth and depth of best practice experience as well as having the entrepreneurial spirit to navigate through new waters.
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