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
Miami U of Ohio (CEO)
Widener U
Monmouth U
Purdue
U Chicago
SOUTH AFRICA
Arizona State
Georgia Tech
U Delaware
U Scranton
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