Pharma seen as good employer, survey finds

The pharmaceutical industry in Belgium is perceived as the second best sector to work in, after the chemical industry, according to a market research survey carried out by Vacature.com. Of the top 50 firms identified in the survey, nine are drugmakers and one of the 11 chemicals firms, Solvay, which was listed in both categories, according to the pharma.be, Belgium's research-based drug industry group.

By contrast, banking, information and communication technology, business consulting and the energy sectors each accounted for three or four selected firms. The Belgian findings contrast with a similar survey in the USA published by Forbes magazine, which only recorded three drugmakers, including biotechnology companies, among the top 100 to work for in 2007 (Marketletter January 28).

Jansen Pharmaceutica, a unit of USA-headquartered health care giant Johnson & Johnson, was ranked third out of the 50 in the Vacature.com survey. The other listed pharmaceutical companies were Belgium-based Solvay, Alcon (which is majority-owned by Swiss food giant Nestle), Capsugel (a unit of Pfizer), Express Pharma (a specialist recruiter of drug industry and pharmacy personnel), UK-headquartered major GlaxoSmithKline, Innovex (the contract sales unit of the US Quintiles Transnational), global behemoth Pfizer, and Ireland's Tibotec-Virco.