By a broad definition of the life sciences – including medical devices, pharmaceuticals and certain parts of agriculture and chemicals – employment in the United States is 885,000, according to a study by the Battelle Memorial Institute. Some 225,000 jobs, mainly in computers and back-office work, moved offshore in 2004 alone, according to Forrester Research.
There are some factors that suggest life-science jobs will be slower to move offshore than those in information technology. For one thing, drug companies face less pressure to cut costs because they have relatively high profit margins
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