The Albany Business Review published the following article as a sidebar to its Oct. 18 cover story: The Regeneron Effect. Over the past decade, the pharmaceutical company has grown into one of the region’s largest employers.
Hudson Valley Community College professor Donna Barron wants to get the word out about opportunities at Regeneron and other biotechnology companies in the area.
She knows the opportunities firsthand, having worked for Regeneron as a manager of downstream process sciences from 2000 to 2006, when she left to raise her family.
The region’s colleges are well positioned to help prepare future employees of Regeneron and other companies like Curia Global and Taconic Biosciences, but bolstering the pipeline of those prospective hires is a challenge, Barron said.
In an effort to address the issue, HVCC and the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences last year launched an outreach program, Biotech Connect, that aims to boost awareness – especially among high school graduates, women, people of color and refugees – of the opportunities that the biomanufacturing and life sciences sectors present.
Barron said she and Michelle Lewis, executive director of the Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training at ACPHS, are now seeking grant funding to expand the outreach program.
The two schools also have an agreement that allows students who have earned associate degrees in biotechnology at HVCC to transfer to ACPHS to continue their studies in microbiology or pharmaceutical sciences.
“What ACP and Hudson Valley offer together is a lot of on- and off-ramps for students,” Barron said.
In addition to a traditional associate degree, HVCC also offers a one-year biotechnology certificate program – an option for college graduates contemplating a career change – and a brand-new “microcredential” offering, which was developed with Regeneron’s input and aims to prepare students to work at the “fill/finish” facility in East Greenbush.
Barron said other biotechnology companies in the area have difficulty hiring or retaining employees because of all the jobs open at Regeneron. She encourages students to check out other options, too.
“Regeneron does get a lot of the oxygen in our area, as they should, but there are other companies,” she said.