Thar's Gold in them thar Genes! - Bioinformatics.org

Gary Van Domselaar • July 1, 2000

Thar's Gold in them thar Genes!

''A whole host of companies are vying for their share of the gold. Jason Reed of the investment banking firm Oscar Gruss & Son in New York City estimates that bioinformatics could be a $2-billion business within five years. He has compiled information on more than 50 private and publicly traded companies that offer bioinformatics products and services. These companies plug into the effort at various points: collecting and storing data, searching databases, and interpreting the data. Most sell access to their information to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for a hefty subscription price that can run into the millions of dollars....'Assume I'm a pharmaceutical company and somebody can get [my] drug to the market one year sooner,' explains Stelios Papadopoulos, managing director of health care at the New York investment banking firm SG Cowen. 'It could mean you could grab maybe $500 million in sales you would not have recovered.'''

Full story at Scientific American:
http://www.sciam.com:80/2000/0700issue/0700howard.html

A report on trends in commercial bioinformatics by Oscar Gruss & Son (PDF format):
http://www.oscargruss.com/CommercialBioinformatics.pdf

''But bioinformatics is also a bottleneck for many drug and biotech companies that can't find enough talented software engineers who combine sophisticated analysis tools with an understanding of genomics. 'We resolve the bioinformatics issue [by hiring] two people: one who understands computer science and the biologist or researcher,' said Kenneth Fasman, vice president and global head of informatics of AstraZeneca LLC in Waltham [Mass].''

Full story at The Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com:80/dailyglobe2/178/business/Bioinformatics+.shtml

''As expected, salaries for the most part climb as the level of training rises, starting in the $40,000-$50,000 range for BAs and reaching over $100,000 for one post doc. But there are exceptions. For example, two of the three undergraduates who were placed received salaries between $50,0000 to $60,000. This is higher than that earned by seven of the masters students, although ten of the nineteen masters students for whom we have salary information earn more than $60,000. One masters student received a starting salary of over $100,000. Reported salaries for five hires at the doctorate level are over $70,000. One is between $80,000 to $90,000; another is over $100,000; yet another is between $60,000 to $70,000. Three post docs received placements with a salary between $80,000 to $90,000. One post doc was placed at a salary of over $100,000. One institution reported that one or more masters student(s) received a signing bonus.''

A report on hiring patterns by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation:
http://www.sloan.org/programs/scitech_page1.htm

References by Snowdeal.org. Submitted by J.W. Bizzaro

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