Where thousands of former Health and Human Services employees will work next is unknown, but biopharma companies likely aren’t the main destination. Two biopharma executives discuss potential landing spots.
The Department of Health and Human Services has pushed thousands of employees into a challenging job market, and it’s not easy to predict where they’ll all work next, according to two biopharma executives.
In late March, news broke that HHS would cut 10,000 staffers. The layoffs began April 1 at agencies including the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health. Eric Celidonio, founder and managing partner of Sci.bio Recruiting, a biopharma recruiting firm, told BioSpace he didn’t know where those former HHS workers will end up working. However, he didn’t see them flooding the private sector’s biotech and pharma companies.
“There’s obviously some very good and talented people who are quite credentialed that will land, but there’s just no way that industry can absorb them, especially now, as you see, with the major cuts that have been going on, the lack of financing to even get drugs into the clinic,” Celidonio said. “And with fewer drugs going into the clinic, there’s going to be less of a demand for additional staff.”
The level where people worked at HHS will likely drive their landing spots, according to Celidonio. He noted that senior-level staff who are “super connected” will probably find consulting work, while others may find getting their next job more challenging.
“The middle people who just have been there for 15 years, haven’t done much else, they’re going to have a hard time,” he said. “I don’t know where they go, to be perfectly honest. I think they’re going to be partly on the government dole from an unemployment standpoint.”
Paul Evans, CEO of Velocity Clinical Research, a multispecialty clinical research organization, was also unsure where all of the former HHS employees will work next and noted that the job market is particularly tight right now.
“The number of cutbacks the federal government’s making—look at the DOGE cuts—you know, it’s not easy to see where those people get absorbed,” he told BioSpace.
Evans also noted that if the expected pharma tariffs lead to a recession, there’ll be even fewer open positions to choose from.
“It’s not a great time to be losing your job in any industry, but that’s particularly true in the life sciences space at the moment,” he said.
Biopharma Companies May Not Be the Right Fit
Regarding why former HHS employees wouldn’t flood biopharma companies, Celidonio explained that not all government employees are equipped to do private-sector jobs. He noted that while the government is almost always on the reviewer side, industry is always on the doer side. The mindset is different. For example, Celidonio said companies—especially small ones—are more team oriented.
It’s less like that in the government, he noted.
“You have your job, you do it,” Celidonio said. “Someone else has their job, they do it. Sure, they talk, but it’s not a team trying to get a drug approved or a medical device through a regulatory gauntlet. It’s more like ‘I can do my job, I go home at four and I don’t have to think about it.’ That might sound kind of unfair, but in a company, if you don’t have success, you don’t have a job. In the government, if you don’t have success, you still have a job.”
That’s not to say that former HHS employees can’t transition to biopharma companies. Celidonio, who’s seen FDA staff go to industry, said those who could make the move were likely fairly early in their tenure at the department, are agile and are nimble.
‘There’s some really good people who work in government who can get things done,” he noted. “Those people will always be needed in the private sector.”
Potential Landing Spots Include the Government
Companies aren’t desirable landing spots for every former government employee. As Celidonio noted, some people work in the public sector because they want to make a difference and have an impact on policy. Joining a lobbying group such as MassBio might be an option in those cases, he said. If those people are actually open to working at large companies, he noted that they could explore government relations roles at those businesses.
There’s also the possibility of former HHS workers going somewhat full circle. Celidonio said some could end up back in government roles if the department’s cuts cause problems that need to be addressed through rehiring. There’s already precedent for people taking government jobs again. In February, about 300 of the roughly 1,000 FDA staffers who’d been laid off were asked to return.
“That’s my guess, that some of them do come back in maybe the not the not-so-distant future if something really breaks, like drugs really don’t get approved and other countries start to gain competitive advantage from a regulatory standpoint, like China is right now and has been doing,” Celidonio said.
A recent National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) report noted that China is growing “dangerously close” to overtaking the United States as the global leader in biotech innovation. It prompted the introduction of two bills earlier this month to help revitalize biotech in the U.S. as a key component of national security and economic productivity.
Evans pointed out another concern related to the HHS layoffs that may, as Celidonio put it, cause something to break: the potential negative impact on clinical trials.
“When you look at 20% plus cuts in the FDA, that’s going to add to the pressure on getting clinical trials started because, of course, the FDA—the regulator—has quite a lot of input to make in clinical trials being approved and getting started up,” he said.
Impact on Biopharma Job Searches
As former HHS workers look for employment, those applying to biopharma companies will probably make job searches harder for pharma and biotech professionals seeking their next roles, according to Celidonio. The reason is simple: Companies will have more applications to review.
“Now, when you post a job, you get three times as many applicants as you did a couple years ago,” Celidonio said.
That’s due not only to the unemployed looking for work, he noted, but also to tools that allow people to apply to more companies faster.
“It tends to be the applicants aren’t even really getting a fair shake, because it’s just too much to look at,” Celidonio said.
In some good news for those navigating the tight job market, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said last week on “The Megyn Kelly Show” there are no plans for additional mass cuts at the FDA.
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