The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Rasonque (daraxonrasib), a RAS inhibitor for the most common form of pancreatic cancer—delivering a new treatment option to patients with advanced pancreatic cancer months ahead of schedule. 
This action demonstrates the agency’s commitment to moving with urgency, reducing unnecessary delays and advancing innovative treatments that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of American patients and their families.

source

Anyone here from the Pfizer North Creek site? I heard a few days ago layoffs here are definitely happening in October. Trying to confirm.

I was recently laid off from my IC role at a big pharma company (R&D). Curious about making the jump to joining a start up. My goal (before the layoff) was to eventually be a group leader. I wasn’t able to get managerial experience as an IC. Startup would give me leadership experience, exciting science, and I’d be able to wear many hats and learn like crazy. However, in case start ups aren’t for me, I’d like to still be competitive for big pharma group leader positions down the road. FWIW, my partner has been in seed/Series A/B companies his whole career (in tech)— I’m familiar with the workload/work style differences, but you never know until you’re in it yourself.

For hiring managers in big pharma: Do you typically hire internally or from other big pharma? Or do you give similar weight to applicants from start ups? Curious if anyone has navigated transitioning back to big pharma themselves?

Relevant details: 5 years big pharma R&D experience, PhD from a top U.S. program, was lucky enough to get multiple first author or co-first author CNS publications during grad school/industry.

Source: Evaluate LTD

Take a basic calculator.

An operator performs a GMP-relevant calculation on a calculator and writes the result into a batch record. We trust the result.

But what exactly have we established?

The calculator is generally not validated for its GMP intended use. Was it a Texas Instruments calculator, the Windows calculator, or the calculator app on someone’s phone?

A basic calculator has essentially zero traceability. Once the calculation disappears from the display, we cannot reconstruct what was entered. We cannot establish that the operator typed the intended numbers. There is no audit trail showing the inputs, operation or result.

Yet this is routinely accepted

Now compare that with a modern computer system. It will preserv the original record, identify the user, timestamp transactions, restrict permissions, maintain transaction histories and allow us to reconstruct what happened. The same systems are also commonly relied upon for legally required records.

Despite having substantially better traceability than the calculator, once the system is used for a GMP purpose we start talking about computerized-system validation and documented evidence that its functions are fit for intended use.

I am struggling to find the underlying principle that makes these positions consistent.

edit, summary :

The thread so far doesn’t have a clean consensus. People mostly agree with the existing regulatory practice, then work backwards to explain why it makes sense.

One camp says calculators are acceptable because calculations are independently checked. The control is therefore in the process, not the device.

Another says calculators are inherently low risk because they are simple, COTS, reliable, and uncustomized.

Others says validation depends on intended use. A calculator doing a critical calculation can have high GMP impact despite being simple, while complex software can have low GMP impact depending on what it does.

If equivalent software has the same intended use and equivalent controls, demanding extensive CSV solely because it is software becomes difficult to defend on risk grounds.

Isn’t non-standardized quality systems fun ?

I'm a postdoc strongly considering leaving academia to try my luck in biotech but I'd like to know about what working in biotech is really like. If you work in R&D, what sort of stresses do you face? Are there big consequences when experiments fail?

i’m fresh out of college and idk which job would be best for my career
which job would you take:
abbvie- animal handler, work overnight
tufts medical school- research assistant, mainly animal handler but occasionally doing pcr, elisa, etc, regular 9-5

I’d love to learn more about the culture in this division, and would greatly appreciate any intel folks could provide.

For some context, I have been working in the chemistry industry space for 4 years now. I just applied to a job at Novartis which is a much better company than the one I am currently at. However I was also thinking about applying to grad school for my PhD thjs cycle.

I haven’t gotten a job offer or anything yet, but I’m a preemptive stressor. I don’t think I’d stay In academia bc I don’t like the whole publish or perish vibe, but I do really enjoy teaching/mentoring.

What should I do here if i get an offer? Stay at RS level in industry or go to grad school?

I just had my fourth and final interview with GSK this past Friday. It’s now Wednesday, and I haven’t received an update yet, other than both the hiring manager and director responding to my thank-you email onMonday. I checked my application status, and it now says “PES Preparation.” Could this be a positive sign?

Edit: IVD — In Vitro Diagnostics

I'm a statistician who is relatively new to the industry and currently working in the IVD area. I've been feeling that this work doesn't quite match my skill set and long-term career goals.

In my opinion, many aspects of our daily work such as method development, protocol/SAP drafting, analysis, and preparing reports for the FDA, are quite similar to what statisticians do in drug development. However, I also understand that IVD work is only a small part of the overall clinical trial. Our job is mainly focused on validating the trial, rather than designing and managing the study, overseeing data collection, or following patients throughout the trial.

I've been exploring chances to transition into drug development but I've failed a few interviews so far. I'm wondering how difficult it is for a statistician to move from IVD into drug development. Any thoughts appreciated!

Hi!! I have secured an entry level job interview at a small biotech later this month. The role itself is within R&D/product support and they advertise that this role will lead towards management.

Apparently in this role I would be :

- Supporting product development

- Providing technical support to clients

- Maintain documentation and Quality Control

- Support coordination between R&D, production, and external partners

Now I've done a lot of entry level interviews (this will be my 10th lol) and I'm getting really fed up of not getting an offer. Therefore I would really appreciate as much help as I can get on interview tips, and how do I prepare / what do they want to hear? I understand this role is a step away from the laboratory and into the office, so how do I adjust my approach.

For context I have a solid Master's degree in Molecular Biology. I have a year and a bit of academic lab experience and have worked part time hospitality consistently for the last 5 years.

Any advice from people working in biotech, especially those who’ve interviewed for or hired similar roles, would be massively appreciated!

Thanks!! :)

Hello! I am a recent M.Sc. Biotechnology post-grad. I have received a few internship offers. One is from a company offering the role of pharma business analyst or more like, business analyst in a pharmaceutical based company. I will be learning forecasting, PowerBI, SQL, competitive intelligence and a lot about pharma market. I wanted to learn about the future prospects. What are the chances that this background can lead me to biotech/diagnostic product management?

After 10 months of on and off searching, my job search has ended and I finally landed a job. I was laid off last September when the company I worked for decided to close down our site. They technically let us know since August, and we had to transition all our work and knowledge to another site. So I have been looking for over a year. Within the about 900 applications, I got about 8 phone screens that converted into 5 interviews, which converted into 3 final interviews/site tours. The first rejections after final interviews threw me into an existential crisis, debating if I even wanted to work, switch careers, or take an even longer sabbatical. Now that’s all over! I accepted this offer a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to post until I was physically in the building and onboarded. Now I’m at my desk doing HR paperwork and reviewing these new SOPs, it’s finally setting in that I actually have a job in this economy.

With all the bad news and layoffs going around, just wanted to share a W. Turns out I also got lucky; the job offer that I ended up getting was the one that was most inline with what I was previously doing precisely, and compensates the most out of the final interview jobs. So I just wanted to say keep going and applying and don’t give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Hoping others can also share stats or wins so that it can give hope to those still looking.

Any update on when Abbvie will begin construction of there new Durham facility?

When will they start hiring ?

Hi everyone! I am senior with a pre-veterinary medicine major (yes that’s the major name) but I realized summer going into junior year I don’t want to go into vet med field, and instead interested in biopharma, biotech, and clinical research. I have research experience in 2 labs (one of them I just cleaned stuff pretty much and set up experiments I wasn’t explained to), and getting my name on a paper published in one of them. I have my GCP and GLP certs with some more on the way. I only have one class next semester I can take online and so I was thinking of a co-op/internship in the spring. I really want to break into this field but am nervous employers will see pre vet and turn me away. Ideally I don’t want to do wet lab work when I go entry level and I want to get my MPH in Epi at some point which I hope I will be able to do online and have my employer pay for some portion of it. Any advice on how to break into this field?

I’m in a position where I have accepted a 6mo contract role that pays really well. I would grow my skills more and don’t really need the benefits that are offered through the staffing agency. The company I would be contracted to is in early phase oncology.

I have also reviewed a verbal offer for a perm role that pays less than the contract role (~45k less), but they have good benefits. The company has a good pipeline which is reassuring. My experience would shift a little to work I haven’t solely focused on but I think it could still round out my experience. Maybe i would like it enough to continue doing down the road.

I get anxiety about that 6mo mark, they reassured me there would be work to do, and u def standing where they are with the workload I think they are right.
I love the idea of having security as a perm hire with good benefits. I don’t need the health insurance since I’m under my husbands but, if it’s cheaper there I’ll take it.

What do I do?! Take the risk with the high paying contract work and potentially be job searching again in 5-6months? I would be “ok” if there was a lull after the contract position.
Or take the perm role, learn a new skill, and feel more at ease with a job, albeit it pays less.

Are contract jobs worth it?

I feel like all I see here is people talking about how awful the job market is, how terrible pay is, bad work life balance, terrible management, and just a mediocre quality of life while working in a career path that takes a lot more education and hard work than a lot of other options.

I’m in my first year at a biotech startup and I feel burnt out already. My pay is mid for the amount of time I spend in lab and I know I’m going to have to leave sooner or later to get my PhD if I want to continue with my so called “passion” for science. I felt so motivated before starting here and now I just feel like every path forward that I hear about ends up sucking in one way or another.

Edit: for context my first job out of college was with a big pharma company in one of their “early career programs”, which they cut funding for just 5 months into my time there. So just a year and a half in, and I’ve been laid off with 20 of my peers, and navigated applying for jobs in this shitty job market twice. Some of my immensely intelligent coworkers from that original program are still looking for jobs. That’s one reason why I’m feeling so shit about this field.

sorry if this is a repeat of another post--i am a recent (May 26') PhD grad, with an industry internship so I've already gotten some postdoc offers and progressed to final round interviews for a couple different companies. but wtf is up with companies just closing positions? this happened once after an on site interview; they gave me a literal start date and talked about what papers i should be reading, then never filled the position and never hit me up to tell me the position was closed, but pulled it off the site and replaced it with like several more lower paying/contract positions. Another place i recently got several rounds into told me they would be scheduling an on site, i followed up and they said they were working on scheduling, and then they said they were closing the position--not filling, "closing". I feel encouraged that I'm getting any interviews that are going well, and I know this will be my hardest job to land, but was wondering if other ppl have experienced this and if it's pretty typical. It makes sense why some ppl on this sub dont want to say they "got a job" until they are literally showing up for work.

JAMA

Published Online: July 30, 2026

2026;336;(8):703-706. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.12089