Biocon which has a total staff strength of 6700 has embarked on an aggressive hiring spree to support its expansions at its research services business through Syngene and Clingene. Incidentally, the legal process of the merger of Syngene and Clingene is underway and Biocon would look at going public after the General Elections depending on the favourable market conditions.

The company has hired 150 scientists at Syngene and 250 personnel for its soon- to-be operational plant at Johor in Malaysia.

“From the Biocon Academy which commenced its 16 week course, we will be selecting 15 out of the 30 students who are mix of both bio-scientists with experience as well as fresh engineering and science graduates”, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited.

From 2012-13, the company strengthened its recruitment alliances with business schools like IIM, ISB, MDI and technical schools like IITs UICT and NIPER through social media platforms. With the research services registering a 28 per cent year-on-year growth for the fiscal and 14 per cent in Q4, 2014, is a clear indication of the broad based business momentum across our chemistry, biology, biologics and clinical services platform which is expected to create a robust order book. “We will continue to invest and enhance our development services platforms and have hired 150 scientists”, said Peter Bains, director, Syngene.

“The Malaysia facility is slated for its first phase commission in 2015 and we have hired 250 personnel and this number would go up to 400”, said the newly appointed Dr Arun Chandavarkar, chief executive officer, and joint managing director, Biocon Limited.

Shaw also stated that the Biocon Academy which started its 16-week flagship programme the ‘Biocon KGI Certificate Programme in Biosciences’ in collaboration with Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California with 30 students who would complete the course in May 2014. It has already started campus selections and these candidates would provide the Indian biotech which at the moment is skill deficit, the much-needed qualified personnel.

The company which went in for an organisational transformation has now set up five business units: small molecules: APIs and generics finished formulations, biosimilars: insulin, monoclonal antibodies and biologics, branded formulations, novel molecules and research services. The SBUs will be supported by personnel from R&D, sales, procurements, supply chain, quality, engineering etc.

Further, this year, the company moved up the order from its 19 rank in 2012 to 6 rank in 2013 in the top 20 list of biotech and pharma employers. It is the only Asian biopharma company to be featured in the list based on a study conducted by the ‘Science’ magazine assessed for its s testimony of vision clarity and being a socially responsible to value its human capital.