Medical Companies Joining Offshore Trend, Too

Bala S. Manian rarely looked back when he left India to attend graduate school in the United States. Since 1979, he has started one medical technology company after another in Silicon Valley.

But Dr. Manian is now rediscovering his native country. His newest medical venture, ReaMetrix, which makes test kits for pharmaceutical research, is still based in Silicon Valley. But 20 of its 28 employees are in India, where costs for everything from labor to rent are lower.

The exporting of jobs by ReaMetrix is telling evidence that the relentless shifting of employment to countries like India and China that has occurred in manufacturing, back-office work and computer programming is now spreading to a crown jewel of corporate America: the medical and drug industries.

It could be a worrisome sign. The life sciences industry, with its largely white-collar work force and its heavy reliance on scientific innovation, was long thought to be less vulnerable to the outsourcing trend. The industry, moreover, is viewed as an economic growth engine and the source of new jobs, particularly as growth slows in other sectors like information technology.

http://nytimes.com/2005/02/24/business/worldbusiness/24offshore.html?hp&ex=1109221200&en=ae71065f729ee199&ei=5094&partner=homepage

PhD students in many of the science disciplines seem to be disproportionately from foreign countries, such as India, Pakistan, and the middle east. Some end up staying here, but many go back to their home countries.

American-born kids just aren't interested in going this route, and it seems that fewer and fewer go this way. What will happen to the ingenuity and creativity of this nation if this trend continues?

The right will attack the school system for the lack of american students not going into grad schools, but I think its attitudes that our culture drill into our kids: only geeks are interested in science, its more fun to do xbox all day than study, consumerism and entertainment are all you need for fulfillment, and why be a poor starving student for a decade for typically abysmal salaries once out of training.

EXCERPT:

"...relentless shifting of employment to countries like India and China that has occurred in manufacturing, back-office work and computer programming is now spreading to a crown jewel of corporate America: the medical and drug industries."

It could be a worrisome sign. The life sciences industry, with its largely white-collar work force and its heavy reliance on scientific innovation, was long thought to be less vulnerable to the outsourcing trend. The industry, moreover, is viewed as an economic growth engine and the source of new jobs, particularly as growth slows in other sectors like information technology.

"What I see in India is the same kind of opportunity I saw in the Valley in 1979," said Dr. Manian. In the United States, he said, "a million dollars doesn't go more than three months." In India, by contrast, "I can run a group of 20 people for a whole year for half a million dollars."

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/business/worldbusiness/24offshore.html?hp&ex=1109221200&en=ae71065f729ee199&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I migrated to information technology in the late 90's. It paid 3 times what I made at the lab. Took a general labor job now (IT is tight) and it pays about the same as a lab job that requires a degree. It's bizzare. Young people: Just get an X-box and don't worry about it.

That's what they say when someone wants to buy Canadian drugs.

and they made it for 100 in India

you can't have it both ways!!!

excellent education and connections.