Women in science
Women have made invaluable contributions to science from the earliest times. Forty women have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2010. On International Women’s Day 2018, we celebrate the countless recognized and unsung accomplishments of women in science and all other fields of endeavor.
As a public benefit corporation, Perlara prides itself on its ethnic, gender and age balance. Hire #2 and #4 at Perlara were women and that trend continues. The team ranges from recent college grads to seasoned professionals, all determined to make a difference in the lives of rare disease patients and their families. While the pharma and biotech industry continues to struggle to make progress with gender diversity, the Perlara team is 67% women. According to a Lifestream 2014 survey, women make up approximately 20 percent of biotech management teams and approximately 10.5 percent of biotech boards. Perlara is far ahead of this benchmark with an equal number of men and women in senior positions, 1 female out of 3 Board of Director members, and 50% of women on its scientific advisory board.
Our staff hails from almost every continent and ethnic background with expertise in genetics, pharmacology, cell biology, data science and automation. Working with families, advocacy groups and BioPharma companies, we share an enthusiasm for scientific discovery and a commitment to transparency and engagement.
Buy diverse
In some instances, our purchasing decisions are difficult. We choose to promote a societal benefit at an environmental cost. For example, we’ve started buying supplies from Dot Scientific because we support the diversity of women-owned suppliers at the cost of shipping from Michigan (2391 miles) instead of similar suppliers in California, like E&K Scientific (42 miles). Moving forward, we will work and partner with other biotechs, scientific suppliers, and organizations to help the process of scientific research become more gender balanced. Our partnership with HappiLabs, our Virtual Lab Manager, furthers this initiative through their women-run companies purchasing program.
Women in our future
We expect the strength of our diversity to yield significant progress and breakthroughs in our quests for treatments for rare diseases. We salute the women caring for rare disease patients around the world.
