This year, the BIO Investor Forum (#BIF16) in San Francisco enjoyed its largest turnout ever, basked in the light and warmth of a dynamic industry that may not solve all of the world’s problems, but shines upon us, a salubrious star. Will the industry’s star shine upon everyone, or leave most of humanity in the shadows?  Continue Reading..

How much science does a business person need to know? In this industry, the more the better. Without at least an excellent layperson’s understanding of the company’s scientific underpinnings, a life science executive will remain vulnerable to the greatest of all hazards in managing the business — today’s news.  Continue Reading..

Life Science Leader Launches a Search for Common Ground  Continue Reading..

If the BIO International Convention did nothing but assemble the 16,000 people who came to this year’s meeting in San Francisco, simply giving them a space to talk, that alone would be a great achievement.  Continue Reading..

Alas, I am a specialized ignoramus, or dilettante; aka, a journalist. To ask even the most basic questions about the series topic — generally, new therapeutic approaches to neurodegenerative diseases — I first put myself through a veritable college course on the subject, reading and rereading through a tall (cyber) pile of related scientific, medical, and commercial literature. And yet, it is not the unseen labor I regret, but the...  Continue Reading..

Writing is reinforced thinking. It is a stronger, more constructive way of moving through the thought world. Because I am a trade journalist covering the life science industry, all of those things tend to appear to me in industry terms. Take the drug-pricing debate, for example.     Continue Reading..

Let’s face it, finding the money often captures all but a few crumbs of the typical startup CEO’s attention. Laser-sharp illustrations in the company’s dog-and-pony show may present its scientific platform with convincing clarity and purpose, but traditionally, investment conferences have not been a place where the dollar-hungry startup talks about the infrastructure it must build or hire to turn its science into a medical...  Continue Reading..

What prompted this reverie was a news item on AZ’s new “crowdsourcing” approach to cancer-drug treatment. The report uncritically hailed the program as a veritable revolution...  Continue Reading..

Could climate have played as big a role as science and capital in the origins of the biotechnology industry? The question is about beginning: did this brand new industry need that extra push of a beneficent clime to overcome the unlikelihood of such a business ever being born?  Continue Reading..

What is biotechnology? A manufacturing machine? A business model? An industry built on manipulating life itself for medical and other purposes? Wait. What?  Continue Reading..