Science Biz: What Happened to Biotech?

I recently completed Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech. Time spent reading was a rewarding allocation sans for Part I where author Gary Pisano, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, focuses upon a survey of the technologies, tools and theories that the biotechnology industry is built upon. Don’t get me wrong...I am way way far from all knowing however, to a person such as myself who has had some hands on the pipette experience Part I speaks to some basic concepts. If you are without such a foundation then I highly recommend digging in.

Key concepts hit upon include:

• The biotech industry has underperformed expectations, caught in the conflicting objectives and requirements between science and business.

• The industry needs to realign business models, organizational structures, and financing arrangements so they will place greater emphasis on long-term learning over short-term monetization of intellectual property.

• A lesson to managers: Break away from a strategy of doing many narrow deals and focus on fewer but deeper relationships.