Pharmaceutical Product Development Reviews

Pros

Strong IT infrastructure in place- CTMS, phone lines, systems. Clear processes are in place in completing a task or responsibility. Adequate training provided as part of the onboarding process.

Cons

Management doesn't seem to favor developing internal talent for career progression. There is a tendency to hire externally rather than choose within internal pool of talent.

Pros

Good growth opportunities and training

Cons

Low salaries and bonuses and poor performance review sysytem

Advice to Senior Management

There is no compensation / acknowledgement for the top employees to be recognised for putting in extra time and effort.

Pros

Flexible schedule, understanding management, stable job

Cons

small bonus, no sick leave (have to use vacation days for sick days), no pension plan. Mostly cubicals with limited private offices even for senior positions

Pros

PPD in wilmington is at the Beach.

Cons

lack of communication between departments, low level of energy, employee incompetence.

Advice to Senior Management

Over the last year you have made of lot of changes that will better the company. Keep up the good work.

Pros

Health insurance, paid time off (earned throughout the year)

Cons

Upper management is terrible; there is very limited opportunity to growth; company and management team will do everything in their power to prevent promoting employees and handing out raises; overall team energy is poor

Pros

- low stress environment
- there are good jobs if you get in the right click

Cons

- look elsewhere for "product development" - it doesn't exist
- no developers can be found
- mostly just people filling space and wasting time (no work gets done)
- brain drain (too many good people leaving)
- incompetent line managers

Advice to Senior Management

- get those reward programs going!
- stop changing technology stacks
- get rid of the dead weight

Pros

Flexible work schedule
Can work from home
Salary is close to industry standard although could be a little higher

Cons

Line-managers are promoted based on who they know
Mid-level managers hide from their staff
Very little communication within departments and between departments
No clear vision of where the company is going
Executive management likes to changes horses mid-race; the end result is that nothing gets accomplished
Promotions are based on favoritism
There is no recognition for your effort and hard-work
There is little difference in raises and bonus between top performers and slackers

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to make decisions and stick to their guns. Show some leadership ability and stop being afraid of making mistakes. Get rid of all the mid-level managers who add zero value to the company. Attending meetings for 40 hours a week does not mean you are productive if nothing ever gets accomplished during the meetings.

Pros

Work-Life balance

Flexibility

Working remotely

Cons

Promises not upheld; promotions not given

Pros

I think the job is diverse and challenging, which I enjoy doing. Also I really enjoyed friendship with my co-workers.

Cons

Compensation package has a lot to be desired. Promotion process is not fair, but that maybe case-dependent: it is basically up to your manager.

Advice to Senior Management

In order to attract more competitive employees, you should make your compensation package more competitive. Also a clear career growth path should be made available to the employee.

Pros

Nowadays it is a good environment to develop your pharma industry career but not to start. PPD is also a safe place as PPD will be very reluctant to fire you even if you really screw up. Safe for pregnancy.

PPD is a very good place to learn and master organizational and time management skills (through trial and error) as the timelines that are given are rarely realistic.

Cons

PPD wil not teach you quality or give you proper training. So if you are ambitious it is better to start your career with some pharma/biotech company (producer).

At PPD you will hear a lot about quality and timelines but you will not receive any serious training on either. Timelines are taken sometimes to absurdities which makes it impossible to deliver quality.

A state of emergency is an every day business while the senior management fails to acknowledge that emergency when is constant ceases to be perceived as emergency.

Not a place for serious professionals as achievements are not recognized and emphasis is placed on strict division of tasks which in turn inhibits professional growth.

Too much of corporate pep talk in 1:2:1s with line managers. Line managers not capable of proposing content-related solutions. Senior management fails to train properly junior management concentrating on employing line managers to actual clinical related tasks.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to revise many of your policies because over last two years ceased to be an appealing place to work. You just need to put more money into your operations and gain insignt into cross-cultural differences and region/country specificities.