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Analytical chemists: The life sciences industry wants YOU.
MedCity News
Posted on Sep 17, 2025
There’s a massive demand in pharma and biotech for analytical chemists, particularly those with an interdisciplinary background, Chemical & Engineering News reports. Analytical chemists play a role not only in helping synthesize drugs, but also in teasing apart a drug’s impact on a patient. As the science gets more sophisticated, so does the industry’s need for employees with this subspecialty.
The article points out there’s concern whether academia can churn out enough analytical chemists to keep pace with the industry’s growing needs. C&EN spoke with a range of pharma execs, who made some interesting points:
- “It’s a great time to be an analytical chemist,” Dan Shine, president of chromatography and mass spectrometry at Thermo Fisher Scientific, told C&EN. The company employs roughly 4,600 scientists and engineers, including analytical chemists. “We typically have hundreds of positions open at any one time,” he says.
- Stephen Scypinski, vice president of analytical and bioanalytical development at Bristol-Myers Squibb, agrees. “Analytical chemistry used to be known as a service discipline, but now it’s an integral part of the development organization,” he says. “The evolution of analytical chemistry has gone from, ‘Run this sample for me,’ to, ‘Help me get the requisite knowledge to make the next decision in advancing a product to commercialization.’?”
- “Because of the relatively recent broadening of our R&D focus to include both small molecules and large molecules, we are asked to solve problems with greater complexity, and we have to do the job faster and be more productive,” Zhihong Ge, head of analytical chemistry in the process and analytical chemistry department at Merck, told C&EN. “All that drives our need for people coming in ready to be at the top of their game and at the forefront of change.”
[Image courtesy of Flickr user DonkeyHotey]
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