Biogen Idec Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Core sciences (immunology, protein biochemistry) were, at one time, world class. The Neuro group, while weak in Discovery research, can execute on clinical development like no one else in the MS field. Company has had more positive impact on MS patients lives than all others combined.

Cons – Vicious, relentless political infighting. Every department, every level, every day, played out against a vapid and hypocritical message of transparency and openness. Just vile.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on neurology, dump immunology (its hopeless), remove middle management across the company, fire 2/3rds of the VPs, and read your own vision and core values statements

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec full-time

Pros – High salary, great boss, solid company

Cons – High turnover - people would leave every week
Poor management - my boss was great, but most aren't and your life will be miserable here if you don't have a good boss
You may (or may not) have a good salary, but you will work in a hostile environment (people go crazy with high turnover0

Advice to Senior Management – Do 360 reviews on people before they are promoted. Try to retain good people better. Jobs are hard to come by and it says something when people frequently quit a high-paying job.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Some outstanding people there positioned the company where it is today. Current earnings and drugs coming to market were the result of great foresight from those individuals.

Cons – Current management is taking credit for their predecessors but underperforming now. Mismanagement and a reversion to failed practices from the past don't bode well for the long run. They speak a good game but practice taking the money and I bet they will run before the floor drops.

Advice to Senior Management – Reverse course now. Stop your cronyism and keep good people that put Biogen where it is today

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – The company strives to provide excellent patient therapies and has made great corporate strides over the past few years.

Cons – Some departments function on an environment of fear where senior departmental leaders are not held to the same standards as lower level employees, creating a toxic environment. Significantly constrained resources lead to unrealistic expectations and inability to meet established goals. Over the span of several years, it was my observation that HR does not support the employee and is swayed by political/managerial bias.

Advice to Senior Management – I strongly advise senior management to dive deep into "troubled departments" with high turnover rates and speak with employees (and

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Biogen Idec full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Lots of responsibility is given to employees, primarily because the company is so lean. So it is a great place to work if you are one of those "live to work' people. The pay is also above average, and string 3-4 years together like I have and you can save some serious cash (of course, a chunk of that comes from stock price increases, which almost certainly won't keep at most recent pace)

Cons – Can a company be too collaborative? This one is: lots of time is spent in large, all-day meetings trying to gain consensus; which is nearly impossible and a waste of precious time. This leaves nearly everyone gasping for air, and doing their day jobs late at night, early in the a.m. while th kids are still sleeping, and on weekends. Also, the range of expectations, based on what group you are in, is unbelieveable. Some groups are responsible for following everything. Other groups seem to have few expectations to meet. I feel bad for the commercial people in the US. They have no lives. Finally, the hours here can be extreme.

Advice to Senior Management – employee retention rates will almost certainly jump soon...lots of folks are absolutely burnt

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec

Pros – Great benefits, fair salary, pleasant environment

Cons – Upper management doesn't care enough about the people who work for them. If you have a problem, you're on your own. Was lied to by direct manager more than once.

Advice to Senior Management – Start being more in tune with what is going one with the people who support you. Keep an open door policy and be honest with your team.

Current Employee – been working at Biogen Idec

Pros – Great work life balance
Great people especially those that have been in the company for a bit of time. Not so sure about the new ones especially the new top management.
Has been a very transparent organization (this is changing under new management)
Fabulous benefits

Cons – Has transformed into a highly bureaucratic organization. New management at the top is encouraging this and is rapidly turning the company into a highly silo'ed and bureaucratic organization where titles and political astuteness are more important and better recognized than intellectual contributions. Company is becoming more of a political warfare zone rather than a place to work. Something needs to be done now.
New linear organizational structure limits potential for career growth. People in critical/responsible roles have limited to no experience in the job. Others who do the work thus suffer.
No leadership from middle management. They are just stuck up on titles.
Consider your options carefully before accepting an offer from the Regulatory Affairs CMC group. Reg CMC management lack fundamental technical knowledge and thus even simple decision making takes for ever and many departmental policies/decisions seem to lack clear rationale.
Company relying heavily on prior management decisions that are only now beginning to finally bring results. No evidence of leadership from new management who seem not very focussed on securing the future but for short term decisions to boost stock price.
The value addition to the organization in firing hundreds of employees, cutting core therapeutic areas and new culture of "NEXT" remain questionable. Narrow pipeline or products are disease focussed rather than therapeutic area focussed.

Advice to Senior Management – Empower employees to make decisions based on their capabilities and knowledge but not based on their title.
Focus more on developing our internal R&D organization and promote research.
Bring in more therapeutic areas and build internal expertise. Current "disease focussed" approach is fast becoming a very competitive and crowded space.

Current Employee – been working at Biogen Idec

Pros – Very limited - good compensation with zero confidence in future plans

Cons – Too many To list here - know what you're getting into

Advice to Senior Management – Sack everyone at the VP and senior / director level that doesn't know how to make a decision or just can't - clear out the deadwood before the forest fire consumes the companies future

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Biogen Idec

Pros – Good benefits, most of the employees are nice and welcome new staff and are helpful, great starting work experience for biotech on resume.

Cons – Most managers are too caught up in their own world and they do not reward their staff for what they accomplish. Lower salary structure.

Advice to Senior Management – Take care of your staff and offer bonuses and better raises as they are the ones that make the company what it is today

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Biogen Idec

Pros – The company offers great salary and overall benefits including 200% match to 401K, Tution reimbursement and stock options with long term incentives. So you will feel financially good as long as you are employed by the company.

Cons – Poor leadership, No definite direction, every new executive wants to drive the company their own way without thinking about its employees and how it was done in past. Top executives seem to beleive strongly in the philosphy that their way is always the correct way. Sad to see the employees being laid off, who have spent over 10-15 years at the company specially during this hard economic times. Financial profits are given more value than core human values. I definitely regret my decision now.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop making big decisions by flipping coins in closed board rooms and trying to drive things your own way in a blind directionless fashion. Profit is not everything in life, Employees are human beings and not robots, which you are allowed to turn on and off with a blink of eye.