Inside Pharma’s growing battle for niche talent

Industry leaders shared that hybrid profiles are extremely hard to source in the current market, as they require the combined domain expertise with new technical and analytical capabilities.

A key finding from the ‘Pharmaceutical and life sciences CEO survey’ by PwC highlighted that CEOs’ level of concern over the availability of key skills has been on an upward trend for the past several years, and about 60 CEOs are concerned about the availability of digital talent in their workforce.

Namita Patwari, CHRO & Chief Customer Experience Officer, Alembic Pharmaceuticals emphasised that there is strong competition for experienced manufacturing professionals who are familiar with advanced manufacturing technologies and quality systems.

Steris Pharma keeps running into trouble filling positions in AI-driven drug discovery, clinical data architecture, real-world evidence analytics, and digital manufacturing.

“Some hybrid profiles that are extremely scarce to source in the current market are regulatory professionals who truly grok AI governance, plus R&D leaders who can connect wet-lab biology with computational modelling,” said Jeevan Kasara, Chairman, Steris Pharma.

For Star Bio Pharma Global, finding the right people for marketing (domestic and export), quality assurance (QA), and quality control (QC) has become tough, as individuals who are well-versed in regulations, products, and markets, and have hands-on experience in quality systems and compliance are required in these sectors.

In the case of analytics and digital talent, the issue arises when data professionals today evaluate a pharmaceutical opportunity against the technology, consulting, fintech, or BFSI industries.

“Therefore, we are not always competing only on compensation. We are competing on the quality of the problem we can offer them to solve, the exposure they will receive, and how exciting the industry appears from outside,” said Lt Col Alok Kumar Das (Retd), EVP & Chief People Officer, Brinton Pharmaceuticals.

Another less discussed problem is the attrition of medical representatives. Das shared that constantly replacing individual performers does not solve the underlying problem. Sourcing people who can consistently build other people is much harder and, for a sales-driven pharmaceutical organisation, potentially the most consequential hiring is first-line managers in tier-2 and tier-3 markets.

Saurabh Agarwal, Director, HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research, pointed out that international submission experience is the differentiator in finding specialists who can build and defend dossiers for EU-GMP (European Union Good Manufacturing Practice). This talent pool remains rare outside a handful of large multinationals.

“The formulation scientists with hands-on experience in complex generics are another scarce talent category in India, as only a few companies have built these capabilities in managing modified-release, injectables, and drug-device combination products such as GLP-1 fill-finish at scale,” he said.

While doing business internationally, Sujiv Nair, Global Chief People Officer, MSN Laboratories, shared that there are language barriers in countries like Africa. And, those governments do not allow electronic submissions, they prefer the hard copy. So, the firm has to look for people who know the local language of the country.

Sourcing senior talent is challenging

Industry leaders unanimously shared that the most acute gap is in sourcing talent in the mid- to senior-level experience range.

Lipsa Barick, HR Manager at Star Bio Pharma Global, shared that the challenging category of professionals to recruit is those with five to six years of relevant experience. Most applications that the firm received were from inexperienced people or applicants with limited experience, yet expecting remuneration comparable to that paid to professionals with at least 10-12 years of experience.

Das of Brinton Pharmaceuticals pointed out that the difficulty in attracting mid-to-senior level regulatory affairs and pharmacovigilance talent is fundamentally a supply-side problem due to increased demand, and employer branding alone cannot solve it quickly.

Amit Patni, Founder & Director, Raay Neo Pharma shared the areas where the firm found it challenging to hire senior talent:

• Candidates who combine data science with pharma domain knowledge (pharmacovigilance analytics, RWE, predictive modelling for R&D); scarce across all levels, especially at the senior individual-contributor level.

• International Product Management (IPM): People who understand pricing, market access, and regulatory nuances of emerging geographies; gap at senior level with more than 10 years of experience.
• Medical Affairs: Medical Science Liaisons for specialty/niche therapeutic areas (oncology, nephrology); gap at mid-to-senior level.

Navigating the talent crunch

Leaders emphasised that with AI, automation and analytics rapidly changing jobs, organisations cannot expect the external market to continuously supply completely finished talent in a talent-short market.

With specialised skills becoming increasingly critical to the pharmaceutical industry, companies are working on a mix of strategies like building capabilities from within, sourcing adjacent skill sets, and focusing on job rotations.

Biocon has partnered with academic institutions to build a robust talent pipeline. The flagship campus programme develops graduates through a structured two-year journey with functional and cross-functional rotations.

“By combining internal capability building with strategic talent acquisition, we are creating a future-ready workforce that can support our innovation ambitions and deliver meaningful impact for patients,” said Naveen Narayanan, Chief Human Resources Officer, Biocon.

Steris Pharma has hosted ‘invite-only technical hackathons’ for AI/ML candidates, and partnered with academic labs for early-career PhD hires. While, Raay Neo Pharma sourced R&D and scientific roles through academia/research institutes like NIPER and IISc-type talent pools.

According to Das, military veterans are another talent pool that corporate India, including pharma, continues to underutilise. The mistake organisations sometimes make is trying to match a veteran’s military job title directly with a corporate job description.

“Ex-military veterans, including nursing officers, can take up the roles of hospital administration, derma R&D, advisory board, training roles, medico marketing, pharmacovigilance, and compliance specialist,” he said.

The pharma talent equation is changing from a race to hire scarce skills to a broader question of how organisations create capability. Looking ahead, the industry will need talent that can keep pace with advances in biologics, AI-driven drug discovery, precision medicine, digital manufacturing and complex regulatory environments.

The companies that anticipate these shifts and prepare their workforce accordingly will be better placed to turn scientific and technological advances into the next generation of therapies and healthcare solutions.