The Top Biotech Companies That are Hiring –

June 2020

June 9, 2020

Despite the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, companies across the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) continue to hunt for talented life science professionals to advance their technologies, produce their commercial products for the patients that need them, and for many they are also supporting COVID-19 vaccine and diagnostic efforts that the whole world is counting on. 

If you are looking for biotech jobs in Maryland or across the BioHealth capital region, now is a great time to start your search.  Three of the top companies listed are located in Frederick, Maryland which has become an advanced BioManufacturing hub within the region and is seeing continued growth in this sector.

Here’s a roundup of the top companies hiring for biotech jobs in Maryland and are hiring across a wide array of functions and experience levels.

Emergent Biosolutions, – Baltimore, and Montgomery County, Maryland

Emergent BioSolutions, with multiple facilities in the BioHealth Capital Region, is hiring for dozens of full-time positions to propel its existing pipeline forward while also playing a leading role in the global fight against the coronavirus.

Emergent is looking to hire top talent for a variety of positions across the company that can be found on their Career Page.  More specifically, they are seeing a great influx of hiring for several critical biomanufacturing roles out of their Bayview facility in Baltimore, including: 

• Manufacturing Associates
• Sr. Manufacturing Associates
• Lead Manufacturing Associate
• Manufacturing Supervisors
• Project Manager

The company’s Talent Acquisition team recently held a virtual recruiting event through BioBuzz to spotlight their career opportunities, showcase their mission and culture and share why Emergent is the leading biotech company in Maryland for career growth and opportunity, even in the times of COVID-19. During this event, job seekers learned more about open positions and the work culture at the company’s Emergent Bayview facility in Baltimore, which is designated as a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) by BARDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Emergent BioSolutions has a 22-year history of providing specialty products and services that address public health threats. It has approximately 1,800 employees across the globe dedicated to the company’s mission – to protect and enhance life. About 700 employees are located across five locations in Maryland. In Baltimore, Emergent’s Bayview facility is one of only three centers in the U.S. designated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a CIADM designed to rapidly develop and manufacture medical countermeasures in response to public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can read more about what’s happening at Emergent by following the links below:

• Emergent BioSolutions Signs Agreement to be U.S. Manufacturing Partner for Johnson & Johnson’s Lead Vaccine Candidate for COVID-19
• Two Maryland Biotechs Partner to Bring Coronavirus/COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate into Clinical Trials
• Emergent BioSolutions Signs Agreement With Novavax to Manufacture NanoFlu™
• Emergent BioSolutions Signs Development and Manufacturing Agreement with Vaxart for their Experimental Oral Vaccine Candidate for Coronavirus Disease
• Emergent BioSolutions Partners with U.S. Government for Comprehensive Response to Expedite Development of Plasma-Derived Therapy for COVID-19

Kite, a Gilead Company – Frederick and Gaithersburg, Maryland

In late August 2017, Gilead Life Sciences acquired Kite Pharma for $12B. By October 2019, the FDA approved Kite’s CAR-T cancer therapy, YESCARTAⓇ, making it one of the first autologous cell therapies ever approved by the FDA for cancer. 

Kite announced their initial expansion to Gaithersburg, Maryland in May 2018 with the lease of a 26,000 sq facility to support the work of a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop adoptive cell therapies targeting patient-specific tumor neoantigens.

Additional expansion news came in April 2019 with the announcement of their plans to open a new state-of-the-art commercial manufacturing facility in Frederick County (Urbana) that will produce innovative cell therapies for people with cancer, including Yescarta, starting in 2021. 

Since the announcement, the company has made significant progress on construction and has been actively hiring top talent to bring the new cell therapy manufacturing facility online and produce it’s innovative cancer therapies when it opens.

Currently, the company has about twenty (20) open positions between the Frederick and Gaithersburg sites that range from Manufacturing, Quality, Process Engineering and more; a few of which are listed below.

• Cell Therapy Specialist
• Supervisor, cGMP Manufacturing
• Quality Control Manager – Microbiology
• Process Engineer, Manufacturing Technical Services
• Senior Director, Process Development
• Computer Systems Validation Engineer

To learn more, visit Kite’s Frederick County, Maryland job page here.

BioFactura – Frederick, Maryland

BioFactura is a growing biotech company in Frederick, Maryland that develops and commercializes high-value biosimilars using its patented StableFast Biomanufacturing Platform. The platform has shown to be the optimal system for bringing these drugs to market with faster, lower cost, superior-quality manufacturing. 

The company’s current hiring effort was sparked by a recently awarded contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) valued at up to $67.4 million for the advanced development of its Smallpox Biodefense Therapeutic as a potential medical countermeasure (MCM) for the treatment of smallpox. Its current and past programs include biodefense drugs against smallpox and Ebola, novel medicines for cancer, and low-cost/high-quality biosimilars for autoimmune and infectious diseases.

For over 10 years, the company has been advancing life-saving medicines from the research bench to the patient using its innovative drug development and manufacturing technologies. Lead by founder, Darryl Sampey, PhD, and Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld, BioFactura has fostered a culture of curiosity, innovation and love of science and engineering that is attracting top talent to join the company and be part of the mission.

“We are poised to bend the cost curve in health care by creating generic versions of very expensive biologics. We have a real opportunity to do well and do good…by increasing patient access to great medications. Our technology has a niche focus on biosimilars that are high value and notoriously difficult for others to make,” stated Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld, Chairman of the Board, Chief Medical Officer at BioFactura at a 2019 Fireside Chat.

Current openings include:

• Manager, Quality Control
• Associate Scientist – Bioassay Development
• Bioprocess Engineer – Upstream Process Development
• Associate Scientist/Scientist – Formulation Development

Viela Bio – Gaithersburg, Maryland

Viela Bio, a clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, has been growing rapidly since it spun out of AstraZeneca in 2018. 

In just over two years, the company went public with a successful $150M IPO, had its Biologics License Application (BLA) for its lead product candidate, inebilizumab, accepted for review by the FDA and just recently announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,600,000 shares of its common stock. In addition, Viela recently announced positive interim Phase 1b data from a study with VIB7734, its novel anti-ILT7 therapy, in patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE).

Viela Bio is currently hiring for a number of positions to progress its pipeline, in addition to supporting the potential commercialization of inebilizumab, which has PDUFA (The Prescription Drug User Fee Act) date set for mid-June.

Viela Bio currently has eight (8) job openings; job descriptions for these positions as well as information on the company’s culture can be found here on their careers page.

Altimmune – Gaithersburg, Maryland

Altimmune is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for liver disease and immune-modulating therapies. The company’s diverse pipeline includes next-generation peptide therapeutics for NASH (ALT-801) and chronic hepatitis B (HepTcell™), conjugated immunostimulants for the treatment of cancer (ALT-702) and intranasal vaccines (NasoVAX™ and NasoShield™).

The company has recently been in the news for its effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Progressing its existing pipeline and developing a potential vaccine for COVID-19 has been driving Altimmune’s current hiring push, which has been making progress attracting and hiring the talent it needs. 

According to Altimmune’s CEO Vipin Garg, “We have been extremely busy and have hired a number of new positions in the last 3 months in product development, quality, regulatory and finance. Interestingly, we have made several senior-level hires (including a new board member) using video technology without ever meeting the candidates face-to-face. We are delighted to have new team members to support our efforts on COVID-19.  

The company is currently seeking to fill two positions, including an Associate Director/Director for Product Development. Details on Altimmune’s current open positions can be found on their Careers page.

Candidates can also email [email protected]

Catalent – Baltimore & Montgomery County, Maryland

Catalent is a leading partner in helping pharmaceutical, biotech, and consumer health innovators develop, deliver, and supply superior treatments that improve people’s lives. The company’s operating facilities remain open around the globe during the pandemic and it is continuing to deliver to its customers and their patients. 

Catalent is working with several customers on multiple COVID-related antivirals, vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for symptoms and effects of the COVID-19, including Johnson & Johnson’s lead vaccine candidate, Arcturus Therapeutics’ mRNA-based vaccine, Humanigen’s GM-CSF monoclonal antibody, and Ennaid Therapeutics’ antiviral treatment targeted at COVID-19. Catalent is also involved in helping to support the delivery of over 2 million COVID-19 test kits monthly.

Catalent’s Maryland sites have over 270 openings for full-time roles across various functions including Quality, Manufacturing, Process Development, Product Development, IT, Accounting, Project Management, HR, Engineering, and more.

As Catalent navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, it will continue to keep its patient-first mindset top of mind and do everything it possibly can to keep its people safe and healthy.

Learn more about working in Gene Therapy at Catalent, and visit –  Gene_Therapy_Careers to explore opportunities in Maryland.

GSK – Rockville, Maryland

GSK is a global company delivering billions of healthcare products every year, and several of those products are manufactured right here in Maryland.

Maryland is home to one of GSK’s Global Vaccine Research Centers, as well as Rockville Biopharm where they make and supply key medicines like Benlysta for patients.

We discover, make and market healthcare products; and we aim to bring them to as many people as possible. Find out how we make this happen and what career opportunities there could be for you – from research and development through to supplying products to those who need them.

As a business, we are supporting global efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting the safety of our people by following local government advice and guidance. We are still hiring to ensure that we can continue to supply our medicines, vaccines, and products to our patients and consumers all over the world. You can learn more about our recruitment practices here. Some of our roles are inundated with applications at this time, so response times may be slower than usual. We appreciate your patience, stay safe, and look after yourselves.

According to GSK Rockville there are 65 Positions in between Biopharm (35 openings mostly production/manufacturing) and Vaccines (30 openings – mostly R&D).

Related articles on GSK:

• Something Special is Brewing at GSK Biopharm
• This Maryland BioPharma is Preparing for Massive Growth by Showcasing its Mission, Culture and People
• GSK and Montgomery College Partner on New Apprenticeship Program to Meet Growing Demands for Biomanufacturing Workforce in Maryland

More information about GSK careers.

Meso Scale Diagnostics (MSD – Rockville, Maryland

Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC. (MSD), based in Rockville, Maryland, is a global leader that develops, manufactures, and markets instruments and assays for array-based biological measurements for research use in life sciences and for biodefense applications. MSD is the world’s leading provider of highly sensitive multiplex immunoassays. 

Founded in 1995, MSD’s proprietary MULTI‑ARRAY technology enhances medical research and drug development by enabling researchers to profile many biomarkers simultaneously in a single sample without compromising assay performance. MSD’s technology has been widely adopted by researchers in pharmaceutical companies, government institutions, universities, and clinical laboratories worldwide for its high sensitivity, excellent reproducibility, and wide dynamic range. Throughout its history, MSD has continued to evolve its technology platform to enable researchers to solve complex biological questions and, as the Company looks toward the future, it is expanding into clinical applications and the emerging fields of personalized medicine and companion diagnostics.

According to their career site; MSD has 57 Positions in Maryland between Rockville and Gaithersburg facilities.

More information about MSD can be found at www.mesoscale.com.

Additional companies with several open biotech jobs in Maryland include:

• Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research 
• Camris – Silver Spring, MD 
• Qiagen – Germantown, MD
• Thrive Earlier Detection
• Advanced BioScience Laboratories
• AstraZeneca
• REGENXBIO

Stay tuned to BioBuzz for more Career Resources and news on the latest employers with biotech jobs in Maryland and across the Biohealth Capital Region.