Career Category

Business Development

Job Description

The External R&D group within Business Development is responsible for identifying and assessing external opportunities for potential licensing, acquisition or other deal transactions.  The Senior Associate’s role within the External R&D group of Amgen’s Business Development (BD) group will use scientific knowledge and skills to support the organization, with a focus on triaging and tracking opportunities within BD as well as conducting Business Intelligence activities. 

Triage responsibilities include tracking and logging in opportunities from external companies and other sources into the BD database, by assessing disease indication, stage of development, modality and other information, and ensuring the appropriate BD personnel receive and review the opportunities in a timely manner.  The candidate may also be asked to summarize the attributes of certain opportunities and coordinate the agenda for presentation to a larger R&D and Commercial group for discussion.    

The Business Intelligence activities include collating analyses and insights on the external landscape of innovative medicines and technologies to 1) help inform our assessment of external opportunities being explored for potential acquisition, licensing or collaboration, and to 2) shape both our internal and external therapeutic area strategies.  This role will focus on Oncology, however, may transition to other select therapeutic areas, including Inflammation, Neurology, Nephrology, Cardiovascular and/or Metabolic among others.

This is a compelling role for someone who is motivated by scientific curiosity and the drug development/commercialization process and wants to begin a career in Business Development.  It requires attention to detail, good people skills, strong prioritization capabilities, ability to escalate issues and questions appropriately, and the ability to quickly and efficiently summarize and prioritize information in a way that can be used to communicate to Senior Management.

The person who fills this role will partner across Business Development functions, including Transactions and Search and Evaluation, as well as with functions outside of Business Development including Commercial, R&D, and Strategy. This role can be based in South San Francisco or Thousand Oaks, CA.

Responsibilities Include:

• Stay well versed in Amgen’s Therapeutic Area Strategies as they pertain to external innovation and apply those strategies to Business Development priorities
• Ensure a current awareness of key developments in multiple Therapeutic Areas (innovative therapies, scientific and clinical developments, Regulatory Agency updates, key data events, competitor deal structures and terms, and company and asset profiles).
• Be a key source for in-depth information and analyses of the therapeutic area external landscape to support due diligence efforts of external assets as well as provide post-deal partner intelligence
• Conduct research using primary and secondary data sources including databases, scientific publications, news sources, and conferences
• Distill data into concise analyses/reports/presentations, with stated recommendations and implications to enable sound decision-making regarding internal and external investments
• Ability to work in a highly cross-functional setting and manage changing priorities across several key customers and seek assistance appropriately

• Receive and acknowledge to external company, entering information and tracking the status of each opportunity in the Business Development database, while ensuring appropriate and timely follow-up with outside companies and institutions in coordination with team members
• Apply scientific knowledge to assess and characterize incoming product and technology licensing opportunities and then routing to the appropriate person for review
• Add value by generating, summarizing and analyzing additional data from external sources as required to help make data based decisions
• Coordinate input and feedback from Amgen staff in other functions, including research, development, commercial, legal, and other functions, as needed
• Supporting ERD personnel with generating, assembling, and entering into the Business Development database the internal opportunity review agenda, documents and meeting minutes for the evaluation process  
• Coordinate Triage meetings:  schedule, prepare agenda, facilitate meeting, generate minutes, handle all follow up and ensure each new opportunity transitions properly
• Supporting IS database enhancements and additional department projects as needed

Domestic travel (10-15%)

Basic Qualifications

Master’s degree

Or

Bachelor’s degree and 2 years of biopharmaceutical industry or consulting experience

Or

Associate’s degree and 6 years of biopharmaceutical industry or consulting experience

Or

High school diploma / GED and 8 years of biopharmaceutical industry or consulting experience

Preferred Experience:

• Advanced degree in life sciences
• 2+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry
• Background in consulting or business development
• Scientific knowledge and understanding to identify and evaluate appropriate opportunities that are aligned Amgen strategy
• Experience in relationship building with external partners
• Effective communication skills, and ability to prepare materials appropriate for presentation to a wide range of audience, including senior executives
• Problem solving skills to balance risks and benefits and judge value on terms and conditions for contract negotiation

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people’s lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world’s leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.

Amgen will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.