As long as you are good enough in any major, you will have a good future. What is the future for biostatisticians in CROs? Not only CROs, but also MNCs also lack statistical talents. Of course, the premise is that the professional level is strong enough. However, the employment environment and employment opportunities for biostatistics students are obviously not as good as before.

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Let’s talk about the future employment prospects of biostatistics, as well as the employment situation and prospects of pharmaceutical factories/pharmaceutical companies

This article talks about American biostatistics The solution and prospects of statistics (Biostatistics or Biostat). Many students who study this major will eventually find employment in pharmaceutical companies (pharmaceutical industry, referred to as pharmaceutical companies for short). This article is about the recent situation and is intended for students who are already studying or planning to study this major.

Warald has written "[Warald Application Experience Talk] School of Public Health (School of Public Health) Biostatistics Major Application" and "Brief Talk about the Pharmaceutical Industry + Biology" in the past few years. Articles such as "Job Opportunities in Statistics" are classics in biostatistics major application, and have been repeatedly plagiarized by countless agencies and study abroad consulting companies. I wonder if these bad people recited Warald's articles, misinterpreted them randomly, and pretended to be experts to mislead students.

《一》The overall pharmaceutical industry is currently in a slump

As stated in "A Brief Talk on Employment Options in the Pharmaceutical Industry + Biostatistics", the drug development process consumes countless money but With little success. In the past year or two, many pharmaceutical companies have faced the problem of expired copyright protection for best-selling drugs (which means a sharp drop in revenue). In addition, they have invested billions or even billions of dollars and have not developed any new drugs, which is a great pressure. There is constant news about mergers and integrations between industries, adjustments and layoffs within companies.

Warald has no vision to predict how pharmaceutical companies will improve their drug development processes in the future, but reducing investment in R&D and acquiring small companies that have already made something is more expensive than burning a lot of money without producing results. It seems Better deal. Under this general premise, not only biostatistics, but also any major involved in drug development such as biology and chemistry will be affected.

As far as the United States is concerned, the problems faced by pharmaceutical companies are not only the problem of large R&D investment and low returns, but also affected by other factors such as medical insurance reform, government policies, etc., not many here Said. Students in the application stage probably don’t need to think so complicatedly.

In short, the employment environment and employment opportunities for biostatistics students are obviously not as good as before.

Should biostatistics be studied in "Two"?

Biostatistics relies on pharmaceutical companies and related scientific research institutions to survive. Human beings are always demanding new and good medicines. Health and life are always what everyone is concerned about; at the same time, compared with pure biomedical research, What biostatistics does in pharmaceutical companies is very specific products (that is, drugs for people to take), which can directly bring in money. Against this background, biostatistics will not decline. Instead, with the reform and adjustment of pharmaceutical companies, the employment situation will undergo new changes. Here, I quote Xiao K’s answer in "Talk about the future of statistics employment, focusing on new statistics---Students who applied for MS in 13Fall":

Although pharmaceutical companies do not need to have a team to do statistics work in person, However, the data needs to be analyzed by biotechnology personnel. If the FDA does not fail, or if it does not switch from SAS to other software, it will only need SAS programmers - unless no one produces biological data at all or does not approve new drugs. . . As a result, traditional positions have changed from the stable big pharmaceutical companies to the more mobile cro. I happened to be chatting with someone at noon today. Recently, the pharmaceutical industry has been really screwed up, and the re-employment of those in the chemical and biological fields who have been laid off is really worrying. However, the four chemistry and biology lay offs generally correspond to one biological system, and the biological system can work in cro immediately. The pharmaceutical factory relaxed a little and everyone went back one after another. I have a friend (PhD in Biotechnology) who works in a similar Cro company, and there are many people coming in and out around him. They are laid off and everyone joins Cro to take the job, and then they return to the pharmaceutical factory one after another.

I have been paying attention to the issue of Out source, where can I go: Labor is not cheaper in Europe than in the United States, so there is no reason to go anywhere. Other countries are smaller. Even if there are domestic products in China and India that can be used together with stat phd, they are very few. Then only those who have a degree from the United States are willing to return to work in China and lower their wages. this. . . . Sure, but it's hard to imagine it becoming mainstream.

In addition, Warald thinks we should consider: If we don’t study biostatistics, is there a better choice?

If you have a background in statistics or mathematics, you can choose to major in statistics. Then you can decide whether to choose biostatistics or use it as a secondary option based on your own background and interests; but no matter how biostatistics declines, medicine No matter how bad the industry is, it still has a better future than most majors. Therefore, switching from other majors such as biology, mathematics, and biochemistry to apply for biomedical sciences is still more promising than majoring in undergraduate studies.

In fact, Warald believes that employment in biostatistics is still relatively good among science and engineering majors.

"Three" New Era, New Trend

Warald has repeatedly said: The job market is constantly changing. You should adjust your background and enhance your advantages according to the job market. Don't expect the job market to accommodate you. Complaining will not solve the problem. In fact, we are just like ants, living with the trend, and being crushed if we go against the trend.

The two articles written some time ago talked about the new situation and new trends

The trends in studying and employment in the United States suggest that students majoring in statistics and biology should take Data Mining/Machine Learning homework + learn programming

[Study and employment trends in the United States] Marketing is the next big money sector in technology, requiring statistical analysis + software programming talents

Warald proposed that data mining/marketing requires statistical talents and software programming skills It is very helpful for employment. The purpose is to present the facts and tell everyone the direction and trend of employment. It is not to advise everyone to study a major that is good for employment. We understand that everyone has their own ambitions and interests. But if you don’t want to learn professional skills that are lacking in the U.S. job market, and you expect it will be easy to find a job in the U.S. in the future, then it’s time to wake up and stop dreaming. Even those who study computer science still cannot find a job.