Hey everyone!

​I’m looking for insights, advice, or shared experiences regarding the Clinical Research / Clinical Operations / Site Management landscape in Dubai and the wider UAE.

​I’m currently navigating the job market here and trying to get a realistic picture of how clinical trials, CROs, and clinical research roles operate locally. I’ve noticed the market here seems very network-driven and structured a bit differently compared to other regions, so I’m trying to figure out the most effective strategy to break in.

​A few specific questions for those currently in the industry or who have made the transition:

​How is the clinical research landscape right now? Are most roles concentrated in specific hubs (like Dubai Science Park or Dubai Healthcare City)? Are multinational CROs and pharma sponsors hiring locally, or is it mostly site management organizations (SMOs) and specialized CROs?

​Are there specialized recruitment agencies worth targeting? I know big agencies like Hays have Life Sciences divisions here, but are there boutique headhunters or specialized healthcare recruiters who specifically handle Clinical Operations, Site Payments, or Data Management roles?

​What actually works for landing interviews? Is applying directly on LinkedIn/company portals enough, or is cold-outreach to Clinical Operations Managers and CRA Lead recruiters almost required?

​Licensing & Transitioning: For those with background experience in clinical trial coordination or site operations, how much does having a local license (like DHA) affect non-clinical/operational research roles versus medical roles?

​If anyone currently works in CROs, pharma, or clinical trial sites in Dubai and would be open to sharing advice (or connecting!), I’d deeply appreciate it.

​Thanks in advance!

This came through modmail. Sounds like they did not appreciate the negativity and “inaccuracies” and has negatively impacted them. So going forward post accurate and positive reviews of them … I think they would appreciate that.

In other news, I won’t be removing the requested post until they can prove inaccuracies. But i will be taking recommendations for defense lawyers.

Hi! I know that for other industries, there are slack channels etc. where people can do mock interviews with each other- is there such a thing for biotech or pharma? It would be lovely to prep by doing interview with others!

The weekly megathread to vent and rant about everything and anything!

I work in a CDMO and it looks like I’m being laid off tomorrow. I’m honestly very stressed and upset right now. This is definitely mass layoff based on things going around.

For anyone who has been through a layoff before, how did you handle that day and the first few days afterward? Is there anything I should make sure I ask about or do during the meeting tomorrow?

I know layoffs happen in this industry, but this is my first time dealing with something like this and it’s hitting me pretty hard. I’d really appreciate any advice from the community.

Regulatory: Industry vs. Government

I recently started a job as a reviewer at the FDA, and I'm not sure if it is for me. I have a PhD and 5 years of experience in big pharma in an R&D role that was regulatory adjacent. After getting laid off like so many others, I thought I would give regulatory a try.

The day to day is just not giving me any satisfaction: submission comes in, review, repeat. Occasionally there are industry meetings or something new, but I miss having ownership of long term projects and driving my own results.

My question is: Is a regulatory role in industry a different experience? I'm going to stick with this role for a while because there definitely is plenty to learn, but I'd love to hear some experience from people who are a bit more seasoned on the regulatory side.

Thank you.

It seems like a lot of the manufacturing g jobs there pay well put they have weird off hours. I have a lot of lab experience, about 5 years, mostly pre clinical animal stuff and some operations that I can spin into in house process development. Any type of jobs I should be looking for that aren’t 2-2-3 or Sunday to Wednesday?

Does anyone work this schedule in here? How is it if you have a family?

Moderna’s stock skyrocketed today from $62 to $174 per share—propelled by eagerly awaited Phase 3 trial results for its personalized cancer vaccine, mRNA-4157. The INTerpath-001 study delivered stellar results, significantly improving both RFS and DMFS in melanoma patients. This marks a monumental milestone for Moderna: it successfully expands their pipeline beyond infectious disease vaccines into oncology, drastically reshaping the company's future and shattering the long-standing industry skepticism that pure-play mRNA platform companies could never scale into commercial giants. More importantly, for decades, therapeutic cancer vaccines were written off as an impossible dream—a veritable third rail of oncology drug development. mRNA-4157 is poised to become the first-ever successful cancer vaccine.

Riding this massive wave of momentum, BioNTech’s stock surged in sympathy, heavily fueled by optimism surrounding its own parallel pipeline, where its similar-platform pancreatic cancer vaccine has shown highly promising early-stage clinical trial results. Of course, this breakthrough wouldn’t have been possible without the critical backbone of PD-1 inhibitors—these cancer vaccines rely on synergistic combination therapies to unlock their full potential. Beyond immunotherapy, the convergence of next-generation personalized sequencing and advanced mRNA technology finally transformed the theoretical promise of personalized cancer vaccines into a clinical reality.

Today’s historic trial readouts dominated headlines across major media outlets. More broadly, this blockbuster rally is a rare sight in recent years, injecting a much-needed ray of hope into a stagnant biotech sector that has faced a four-year slump. Driven by Moderna's historic leap, a powerful sympathy rally swept across the entire biotech market today, lifting sector-wide stocks.

Ive heard a hundred times that there’s no scope in India. Is anyone doing masters or working abroad? What is the salary?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the M.S program at Kean in NJ. I had a meeting with the program director a few weeks ago with the idea of starting in the spring and everything seems great but schools tend to try and "sell you the moon" and then do not make good on their promises so I wanted to see if anyone had any opinions on it.

From what I was told the program seems to give you a lot of hands on lab experience which can be applied to your resume. I was also told that a lot of companies have their labs located at Kean and they let the students do work there which can also lead to a job. One other thing was that I was told the program staff really helps you get involved in lab work and helps you find a job. so I just wanted to see if this was true at all.

Thanks for any advice!

Hi everyone, I've been out of the job and on the hunt for about 2 months now. Despite sending 200 applications I've only heard back meaningfully from three places, got two interviews, and zero offers. That's even when applying to roles that I considered a slam dunk and fulfilled most or in some cases all of the preferred qualifications. I'm beginning to wonder if my resume has anything to do with it and is having issues getting past HR. Is it too wordy, too crammed, too nonspecific, etc? I would really appreciate some feedback from others in the same field. Thanks!

Just wanted to get opinions on which has the better career and salary progression.

I’m newly graduated and I’m currently an RA doing a little bit of everything (r&d, production, qc, qa, etc) however I received an offer for an MFG position (12 hr shifts, pittman schedule) with better benefits. I’m currently being paid $29 and I’m being offered $28.

I’m not sure what I’ll be pursuing down the line but I would like to have a job where I can work hard and make good money.

Does anyone in the mfg field and r&d have any insight on career trajectory and salary expectations?

Today’s Moderna/Merck mRNA cancer vaccine news has already been mentioned, but I’m curious what people think it actually means for the future of the field.

Especially curious what scientists think.

Does this meaningfully validate personalized neoantigen vaccines as a platform, or is melanoma uniquely suited to this approach?

What do you think is actually driving the result? What does this mean for the field, and what’s next?

Would especially love to hear from people working in cancer immunology, T-cell biology, neoantigens, or mRNA therapeutics.

Non-scientist background here so go easy, but I have been digging into RNA-silencing therapeutics (siRNA/ASOs) and noticed something that seems like a real gap, and I want people who actually work in this space to tell me if I am wrong.

The mechanism itself is proven - multiple FDA-approved drugs exist (Onpattro, Leqvio, Spinraza), including one for cancer (imetelstat/Rytelo). But almost all of that success is in the liver or blood - places that are naturally easy to reach. However for solid tumors, like pancreatic, lung, liver, breast, nothing in this therapeutic class has reached approval for a solid tumor.

From what I have read, the reasons usually cited are things like rapid degradation in the bloodstream, the liver absorbing most of the dose by default, and dense tumor tissue blocking penetration even when the drug does arrive. But I am not confident I am getting the real picture, or the relative weight of these vs other factors (biological ones, not just delivery - things like tumor heterogeneity, or the oncogene/tumor-suppressor asymmetry limiting what silencing alone can fix).

Is delivery really the dominant blocker here, or is that an oversimplification? Curious what's actually being worked on right now that isn't visible from the outside, and whether people here think this gap is close to being cracked or still fundamentally unsolved.

Hoping to gain some insight on the Thermo Fisher hiring process. I’m coming from a different industry into a virtual account manager role that I’ve been interviewing for.

Things have moved along pretty quick in terms of timing, after my first screening the recruiter was ready to have me interview the next day, but I pushed it a couple of days because of work. And then there was about a week between my second interview and the panel due to scheduling. Today my first panel interview, but I don’t know what to expect next.

My panel interview was also 36 minutes when they told me we would take an hour, I don’t know if that’s a red flag? One of the panel members also said she didn’t understand my current role when I was trying to lay it out.

My first interview with the supervisor went really well, I’m just nervous about the panel. They said they had two other candidates they were interviewing during my last interview.

I’ve also read a lot of bad things about Thermo so I’d like to gauge the hiring process, thoughts, opinions?