UK Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare – Manufacturing and Distribution 2017 – Hiring Update

Posted 26th May 2017 by Marie McBeth & filed under Healthcare, manufacturing.

pharmaceutical-manufacturing

Pharmaceuticals Leading UK Manufacturing Growth

In 2017 there were c.1300 companies involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the UK. Manufacturing in the life sciences accounted for nearly 10% of all UK manufacturing and sector exports were more than £30bn (1)
In 2016 pharmaceutical manufacturing helped the UK manufacturing industry to its best performance in nearly four years – the largest contribution to the increase in manufacturing came from the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products & pharmaceutical preparations which increased by 8.6% month on month with increased exports the main contributing factor to the rise. 2017 showed a slow start for the UK Pharmaceutical Industry in 2017 amid economic uncertainty, but boomed by almost 20% in the rest of Q1 2017 (2,3)
In 2017 the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry employed 53,000 directly and 500,000 indirectly (4)
The UK medtech industry was also worth £17bn, directly sustaining more than 93,000 jobs in the UK and supporting a further 28,500 jobs in the service and supply sector (5)

UK Pharmaceutical/Healthcare Wholesale Distributors – Expanding Sector & New Entrants

In Pharma /Healthcare distribution there are c. 34 key wholesale distributors in 2017 who supply around 90% of UK medicines/healthcare products (6)
The overall global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution industry is forecast to achieve revenue of $1.357bn in 2020 and is set to experience steady revenue growth from 2016 to 2026 (7)
As Big Pharma (such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca) come under pressure from stricter regulation threatening margins, rising R&D costs and outcomes-based reimbursement, they are outsourcing parts of their business which would historically have been done in-house to specialist companies and focusing on their core competency – bringing drugs to market. This has led to major growth in Britain’s privately-owned pharmaceuticals sector which offers services such as distribution, supply chain, consulting, generic development and clinical trial outsourcing (8,9)
In May 2017 there has also been speculation that Amazon is planning to enter the distribution pharmaceutical marketplace , having recently started selling medical equipment in the US (10)

How Will Brexit Impact Skills Availability In The UK Pharma & Healthcare Industry – Manufacturing and Distribution?

In 2016 9 out of 10 pharmaceutical companies said they were struggling to recruit for high-skilled roles in the UK due to low numbers of good quality candidates (11).

In 2017 UK companies overall are also already finding it difficult to hire the right candidates due to a shortage of available workers, with 50% of all current vacancies in the retail and wholesale, manufacturing, health and accommodation and food services industries (12).

New research has shown that a cap on post-Brexit EU migration could result in further huge talent shortages in low-skilled sectors which are reliant on EU migrants (13);

Warehousing – where 15% of the workforce are EU migrants
Packers, bottlers and canners – 41%
Fork lift truck drivers – 21%

The UK’s departure from the EU also presents other long-term challenges to the UK’s pharma & healthcare industries manufacturing and distribution in terms of talent;

The European Medicines Agency based in London since 1995 is set to relocate and take with it 700 regulatory specialists’ jobs from the UK (14)
International pharmaceutical companies could move their European headquarters from the UK and some analysts say potentially, pharmaceutical manufacturing may end up moving away from the UK with investment in R&D remaining (e.g. Novo-Nordisk announcing £115m new investment into a new research centre in Headington, with manufacturing in Scandinavia) (15)
However, it is encouraging that GlaxoSmithKline which employs 6000 in pharma manufacturing has already made a commitment to the UK with its post-Brexit announcement of £275m investment in the UK and jobs creation in 2016 – “one powerful endorsement of a major player’s commitment to post-EU UK as a global hub for pharmaceutical production” (16, 17)

UK Pharma & Healthcare Industry – Manufacturing and Distribution – Skills Shortages Solutions

In 2016 a Process Manufacturing Centre was set up in Leeds to “help fulfil demand for skilled workers in the drug production space” “focused on engaging and partnering with manufacturers to provide solutions to skills shortages and apprenticeship programmes” (18)
Using tech in the industry to help address inadequate workforce planning strategies and engaging with the future generation in education in order to increase the number of candidates in the market in the long term (19)

Recent Hiring In The Sector…

American healthcare packaging giant Bemis has launched an academy to train up candidates for a new centre at its Co Londonderry operation creating up to 95 roles in financeand IT over the next five years (20)
BBI Group is set to expand and consolidate its UK manufacturing operations to a single site at Border Technology Park in Caerphilly, following an £8.5 million investment which will increase employment from 180 to 366 by 2020 (21)
100 new jobs will be created at Bionical which works in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in Willingotn March 2017 (22)
In April 2017 it was announced that up to 50 jobs will be created at Keele pharmaceutical firm Cobra Biologics as part of £15m investment (23)

Ten Live Group – Experts in Manufacturing and Distribution Recruitment

Here’s some recent feedback from one of our clients, one of the world’s top pharmaceuticals/healthcare suppliers about just how “impressed they are with the quality and reliability of staff already provided by Ten Live, and the speed with which Ten Live has been able to find the right staff for their business”…..

We are delighted to report that Ten Live will be a key recruitment supplier to our client going forward in a major drive to recruit a wide range of roles, from management to operational roles across the UK.

If you are looking to recruit talented, skilled and reliable staff for your healthcare manufacturing or distribution business, get in touch with us today !

E:mail info@tenlivegroup.com

Tel: + 44 1236 702 007

SOURCES

1.https://invest.great.gov.uk/us/industries/health-and-life/pharmaceutical-manufacturing/

2. https://eic.rsc.org/review/pharmaceuticals-explained/3007129.articl

3. http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk-manufacturing-statistics

4. http://www.abpi.org.uk/media-centre/newsreleases/2016/Pages/ONS-figures-show-pharmaceutical-industry-leads-growth-in-UK-industrial-output.aspx

5. http://www.medicalplasticsnews.com/news/uk-medtech-sector-launches-healthcare-election-manifesto/

6. http://www.hdauk.co.uk/

7. http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/pharma-wholesale-and-distribution-market-forecasts-2016-2026-593683931.html

8. http://www.protelprojects.com/blog/uk-pharmaceutical-industry-outlook-2017/

9. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/22/top-50-privately-owned-pharma-companies-britain/