Life Isn’t as Sweet as it May Seem in Biotech’s C-Suites
Biotechnology is an idiosyncratic industry in which some executives can stake their careers on the pursuit of orphan drugs that, at best, will offer only limited opportunity for corporate profits and investors returns, while addressing the usually unmet needs of…
Grappling with the Ethics
With science boldly taking us where we’ve never gone before, we’re exploring new worlds and stretching the boundaries of our universe. While these are exciting times for the adventurer in us, they can be discomfiting for our inner ethicist. From…
Where’s Rube Goldberg When You Need Him?
What’s the difference between Congress and a Rube Goldberg contraption? They both use convoluted processes to accomplish a simple task, but the Goldberg invention still manages to keep the end result pretty simple. And while there may be some unintended…
Is it Better to Forgive and Pharm-merge?
Aug. 5 was International Forgiveness Day, and the founding organization of this annual effort, Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance (WFA), says in its mission statement that a goal is to promote and publicize the research findings that show forgiveness creates better health,…
The Pharm-eleon is Shedding its Pharma-saurus Skin Again
If the big pharmas are indeed dinosaurs, they have learned to do what their predecessors could not: survive! Pharma may be prehistoric in terms of age compared to biotech, but it maneuvers more like a velociraptor than lumbering brontosaurus, as…
Caught in Its Own Snare
A hunter walks into a bar and says, “Did you hear the one about the FDA?” “You mean the time it shot itself in the foot?” the bartender responds. “The left foot or the right foot?” another hunter asks, wiping…
Venter, Watson Warm Up for Clash of the Titans
DUBLIN ‑ Europe’s biggest scientific carnival is pitching its tent beside the River Liffey this week. Dublin is playing host to the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2012 meeting and, thereby, assumes the mantle of Europe’s City of Science for the…
Biotech Fundraising Slows in 1H12, Tougher Times Ahead?
There is no doubt that 2011 was a hot financing year for biotech and it was always going to be a tough act to follow. Well the industry followed the script to the letter. According to a BioWorld Insight analysis,…
BioWorld’s Biotech Summer Reading List Plumbs the Classics, BioEthics & Life’s Simple Pleasures
With the 2012 BIO International Convention behind us and the Fourth of July signaling summer vacation season in earnest, thoughts turn to visions of sun, sand and afternoons lounging in a deck chair. Again this year, BioWorld polled biotech execs,…
The Star-Struck FTC
The FTC seems to have come down with a bad case of star envy. Not content with its supporting role as implementer of laws duly passed by Congress, the agency is intent on rewriting the script, casting itself as headliner…
