BioSpace reported on May 7 that biotech professionals may be finding it easier to secure research and development (R&D) roles, citing both its own data and a recent report from CBRE. According to BioSpace, job postings for biotech R&D positions increased by 21% year over year in April and have risen for four consecutive months. This marks the longest period of month-over-month growth since mid-2024.
A report from commercial real estate firm CBRE found similar trends, stating that biotech R&D employment reached a new record in the first quarter after five months of continuous growth. Employment numbers rose each month from October 2025 through February 2026, reaching a total of 295,600 jobs in February.
Matt Gardner, head of life sciences for the Americas at CBRE, said the ongoing growth is linked to an improving capital environment beginning in 2024. "So, if you were to sort of go back and filter all secondary offerings in calendar 2025, you’d find a few industries very prominent, and biotech is definitely one of them," Gardner said. "It’s unmistakable how much biotech there was raising capital in that environment." He noted that follow-on offerings—sales of stock shares after an initial public offering—started increasing in 2024 and accelerated last year.
Gardner explained that companies with follow-on deals benefit by having more resources for products, people and places: "Those are the main consumers of their burn rate, especially when they’re preapproval," he explained. He also described how post-COVID capital constraints had previously led smaller companies to make more conservative decisions alongside their boards and investors.
Recent initial public offering activity also signals improvement; while only eight companies went public in 2025 according to BioSpace tallies, seven completed IPOs during just the first quarter this year. Mergers and acquisitions are up as well: biopharmas spent roughly $46.8 billion across nineteen acquisitions during Q1 alone.
"What’s so promising right now about seeing a greater amount of IPO activity and a greater amount of M&A is that that is recycling the kind of capital that VCs need to pay out the prior fund and set up new fund formation as a strategy going forward," Gardner said. While he noted additional exit activity will be needed for new funds' next steps, he added: "If you are in the R&D market today, you’re probably getting into your next opportunity much more quickly than you were a couple years ago."
