They also produce livestock feed supplements, vitamins, and a host of other products. Of all these activities, the most difficult, capital-intensive, and uncertain of success is the search for new drugs. It is still fraught with risk, however, as a promising project can easily turn into a wild goose chase hundreds of millions of dollars down the road. Biotechnology refers to techniques for manipulating proteins, genes, and other agents at the molecular level, many of which govern the behavior of cells. Biotech has given us innovations in areas from new drugs like Viagra and Rogaine to the use of DNA in criminal forensics, but most observers believe the field is just getting started and will eventually lead to breakthroughs in treating incurable diseases.
Most pharmaceutical companies are large and well-established.
On the other hand, you may find yourself worried about where your next paycheck will come from. Many pursue multiple business lines, selling products as diverse as medical devices and pesticides. And though the trend in recent years has been for these firms to shed their peripheral businesses and concentrate on drugs, this focus includes pairing up with smaller biotech companies for research. Biotech Startups Biotech is Big Pharma's adolescent sibling. This means that most of the jobs in this sector go to scientists, though there are some positions for engineers and businesspeople.