Singapore, Mar 18, 2010: ScienTec Consulting, a leading executive and specialist search firm for the biomedical sciences in Singapore, reports 65% increase in two years for senior hires in biomedical sciences industry in Singapore. Sectors like biotech, research and development, sales & marketing, clinical research & services to biomedical sciences sector has seen a substantial increase in the placement of highly specialized and seasoned professionals, with the top global companies setting up significant operations in Singapore, and openness to global talent. There is no lack of opportunities for talent in Singapore’s burgeoning biomedical sciences industry.

The biomedical sciences industry is now an important sector of Singapore’s economy. It contributes 4.1% of the nation's GDP and employs more than 16,000 individuals. Last year, despite the difficult economic conditions, the sector continued to grow, attracted new projects that resulted in 1,200 new jobs. Singapore’s goal is to attain S$25 billion in manufacturing output by 2015.

“Lack of talent with both leadership and specialized biomedical sciences background such as in pharmaceutical, medical and scientific areas are the main reasons that companies look for talent from countries like Australia, Europe and USA”, said Ms Karen Tok, Managing Director of ScienTec Consulting.

“This sector has only started to grow significantly over the last 5 years compared to its US and Europe counterparts with over 20 years of experience. We are also seeing a shift in need for senior management talent than what was there earlier as the demand was more for middle level specialists,” she further added.

Besides biomedical sciences background, senior management with international exposure and experience is required to lead diverse international workforce, which is common in the biomedical sciences industry these days. Many companies in the biomedical sciences including local start ups in Asia need to build global strategy around their products, thus professionals with international market experience are highly valuable. Additionally, there are also many companies with focus on Asia and they prefer senior managers with strong “Asian Experience” over their scientific background. The gap at the senior level is even wider where one specifically looks for R&D professionals with a commercial experience and vice-versa.

Earlier, western multinationals mainly viewed Asia Pacific as a manufacturing centre. Outside of the major Japanese and Korean consumer brands, the region was rarely associated with innovation. But that perception is changing fast. Today, more and more multinational companies are establishing centres of innovation in Asia’s emerging nations for global or regional product development, while companies native to the region are scaling up their innovation efforts to compete on a global scale. This further fuels the need for talent sourcing which is often not sufficient due to the existing local talent being attracted by the western counterparts.

Ms Karen Tok noted that ScienTec Consulting gets approached by companies within and outside of Singapore for their expertise in the industry and finding the right candidate for the right position. For international assignments, most of the specialist and middle management level are filled by candidates from outside Singapore whereas most of the senior level positions are filled by candidates from outside Asia namely Australia, US and Europe.