IF there's a future in the biotech industry worth working for in the 1st place. The biotech industry in MY is very far from mature. Not by miles, but by continents. Despite the clamor over biotech this biotech that there's really nothing major that's been developed and commercialized by MY. Overall industry R&D spending in MY is poor (0.6%), never mind biotech alone. Spending on this particular sector is usually done by the gov.

From what I've seen, about the best place you could aim for is academia. Which makes sense if you sit down and think about it. If you're really serious about doing R&D but still want to remain in MY, academia is the best option u got. MY academia lacks significantly in manpower. And if you join a gov RLKA program hey, they fund ur postgraduate for u! AND when u come back from phd and start working, u get bumped straight up to grade DS51. Besides, who else is gonna give you the funds and grants u need to do the research u want and the training u need?

Academia refers to the academic sector in general, like what ur friend did - do MSc and PhD then become a lecturer. U could opt for private or public academic institutions or research centers. Public would be a good place to start since they don't mind spending on ur training and education. Although considering how broke the country is right now, I don't know how long this will last.

The Malaysian Biotech Corp is a facilitator, an enabler - they help promote the sector and assist in R,D,C & E. Hence their dishing out bionexus certs, entrepreneurship progs, bionexus partner facilities, information, partnering, commercialization assistance etc. They don't necessarily do biotech per se, they focus their efforts on building up the local industry in that sector. Pretty much like what MDeC is to the ICT industry.

They way I see it la guys, the country needs entrepreneurs , ppl to head out there and build the industry. If there's no place for u to work, build one! Get involved in commercializing local R&D, create a start-up. Not as easy as it sounds, yes, but this is what's necessary.

Sure, more than any other R&D intensive industry. But it doesn't have to be YOUR money.....

They do, but in MY, they're mostly for sales & marketing rather than R&D. i myself started out in life as a pharma sales rep - a glorified drug pusher hahaha. There's not much pharma drug research going on in industry here - and if there is ur probably getting paid peanuts for it as a fresh grad.

Back then it was a basic of almost 2k plus commission for achieving annual sales targets successfully. Sales commissions were pretty good actually - if u hit them you could be making double your annual basic. And the targets weren't out-of-this-world difficult too achieve.

Drop me a pm if u still looking for LI place,might be able to help.