In 2009 the pharmaceutical industry was affected just the same as everyone else by the economic downturn. Biotechnology companies found their funding being withdrawn or just not being there in the first place; large pharma suffered from drug pipelines drying up; and the related services industries found it difficult to win work, with their margins being squeezed hard by clients who found themselves in a very strong bargaining position. Jim Gleeson from CK Clinical explores from a purely recruitment perspective a number of effects of this turmoil. More