Big Pharma Wants You!
Recessionary blues? Not if you’re Chinese. Bigwigs from Big Pharmas such as Roche, Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson sent a clear message to a packed auditorium last Saturday at the 17th Annual Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association Conference ( SAPA)- we are hiring! we want to add your innovations to our pipelines! We want to be your partner! In an industry rife with $1000+ conference fees, SAPA’s ridiculously low budget $25 for an all day conference bought access to some excellent high level speakers and a quick intro to what’s hot in China in research and manufacturing. J&J’s Jose Sartarelli, Company Group Chairman of Asia-Pacific/Japan/Latin America, Alan Palkowitz, head of Drug Discovery at Eli Lilly, and Richard Tillyer, head of Worldwide Preclinical Development at Merck had similar messages talking about how they are transforming themselves from internal research focus to external partnerships.
Overall a terrific event if you can endure the unmentionable food box lunch and the bevy of relentlessly networking PhDs. Also the crowd was almost exclusively Chinese speaking Chinese.
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- rapt attendees in the Robert Wood Johnson School auditorium
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- Roche’s Nader Fotouhi, VP Pharma Research
