Tag Archives: risk

Risk-taking in pharma vs. venture capital

By Lily | Published: July 2, 2009
I’ve been thinking lately about risk-taking in scientific research, focusing on academia. Yesterday Seth Godin wrote about the nonlinear relationship between risk and reward: small increases in risk can yield large rewards, but only large risks yield the largest rewards. This got me wondering about where pharma is on the risk-taking spectrum, and whether pharma should [...]
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Risk is scary, even in academic research

By Lily | Published: June 30, 2009
A couple days ago I wrote about a recent article on how the grant process might be hindering cancer research. While money is critical to enabling experimental research, money isn’t the only reason a researcher might choose a less groundbreaking but safer path; there’s also fear of failure. Truly cutting-edge work is risky because it [...]
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Taking risks in research: the NIH grant process

By Lily | Published: June 28, 2009
In an article published yesterday, Gina Kolata of the New York Times argued that the scientific grant system stifles innovation by funding only lower-risk projects. Although the article focuses on cancer research, many of the stories resonate with my time in academia.  One of the unwritten rules of writing a successful proposal: if you want [...]
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Josh Boger’s advice to pharma: stick to the plan

By Lily | Published: April 13, 2009
Last week I attended a talk by Josh Boger, CEO and founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Boger will be retiring from Vertex this May and spoke on “Lessons From a Lifetime in Biotech”.  One of his key ideas was that more biopharma companies should stick with their original business plan, even when things start getting [...]
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