Many students have been interested in medical research as a career for many years, and that number is likely to increase given the focus on this area during the pandemic. Below are the undergraduate colleges attended for the management teams of the 10 largest American biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. For this list only, just to show how important immigrants are to the success of American companies, I’m including those whose undergraduate degree was not from a US school and have listed the country in which they completed their studies. Over all 10 companies, 23% of those who did complete their undergraduate studies in the US attended MC25 colleges, which is a bit lower than the percentage in most of the fields listed. Interestingly, the percentage who completed their degrees outside the US comes in at 29% of the total vs 17% for the MC25. There is loads of room for graduates of non-MC25 colleges at the largest biotech and pharmaceuticals firms in the country.

Johnson and Johnson

US Military Academy (CEO)

Providence College

U Pennsylvania

Macalester College

SPAIN

UC Santa Barbara

Cornell

Princeton

St. Joseph’s U

FRANCE

BELGIUM

Pfizer

GREECE (CEO)

SOUTH AFRICA

Fairfield U

St. Peter’s U

UC Berkeley

SWEDEN

SCOTLAND (2)

U Richmond

SUNY Albany

Rider U

Connecticut College

Merck

Penn State (CEO)

Miami U of Ohio

Franklin and Marshall

Widener U

Case Western Reserve

U Chicago

Georgia Tech

U Scranton

Arizona State

INDIA

ENGLAND

AbbVie

U Houston (CEO)

U Maryland College Park

Notre Dame

Princeton

U Wisconsin

U Pennsylvania

Indiana U

U Minnesota

Florida A+M

U Colorado Boulder

Abbott Labs

Stanford (2)

Boston College (CEO)

Wesleyan

St. Ambrose U

Rensselear

Northwestern

Weber State

Bradley U

ISRAEL

CANADA

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (2)

U Texas–Austin (2)

Harvard

Washington U in St. Louis

U Lousiville

Minnesota State

U Wisconsin

NEW ZEALAND

WALES

ARGENTINA

Gilead

Georgetown (CEO)

U Colorado Boulder

U Maryland College Park

CANADA

UC Riverside

Iowa State

ROMANIA

INDIA

TAIWAN

Eli Lilly

Purdue (CEO)

U Indianapolis

U Wisconsin

U Puerto Rico

Gannon U

Samford U

SWEDEN

Purdue (2 more)

Stanford

Yale

U Michigan

Tulane

ISRAEL

PHILIPPINES

Amgen

Amherst (CEO)

Binghamton U

U Illinois

Cornell

Stony Brook U

Pitzer College

U Central Oklahoma

Dickinson College

Texas Lutheran U

CANADA

ARGENTINA

U Southern California (3)

Marquette

Colgate

Brown

Stanford

Harvard

U Puerto Rico

Gettysburg College

U Rochester

FRANCE

SOUTH AFRICA

ENGLAND

Bristol Myers Squibb

ITALY (CEO)

LEBANON

INDIA

Washington U in St. Louis

Brandeis

U Delaware

COLOMBIA

ENGLAND

Tufts

Ohio State

Iowa State

Temple

Stevens Institute of Technology

Biogen

FRANCE (CEO)

MALTA

EUROPE (country not clear)

CANADA

Wellesley College

U Massachusetts

FRANCE (3 more)

RUSSIA

INDIA

Georgetown

Stanford

Emory

Boston U