- ISBN13: 9781591398400
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Why has the biotechnology industry failed to perform up to expectations—despite all its promise? In Science Business, Gary P. Pisano answers this question by providing an incisive critique of the industry. Pisano not only reveals the underlying causes of biotech’s problems; he offers the most sophisticated analysis yet on how the industry works. And he provides clear prescriptions for companies, investors, and policymakers seeking ways to improve the industry’s performance. According to Pisano, the biotech industry’s problems stem from its special character as a science-based business. This character poses three unique business challenges: 1) how to finance highly risky investments under profound unc… More >>
Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech
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Rating: 1 / 5
I don’t know what I expected from this book, except for some new insights on how to invest in the biotech industry. I was extremely disappointed to find a whiney critique of biotech companies that take enormous risks in discovering new life-saving or life-improving chemicals, and oftentimes crash and burn in the process. Well, that’s capitalism, for ya’! Would the author prefer a centrally run system in which lazy bureaucrats barely advance scientific discovery? It all comes back to risk and reward. This book is the updated version of complaints about Silicon Valley, and the dot-com bust. OK, the technology business may not be profitable as a whole, but the efforts of millions of people in the pursuit of the big payoff has created great advances and has improved lives in making people more efficient, more educated, and less carbon-intensive.
Rating: 1 / 5
SCIENCE BUSINESS: THE PROMISE, THE REALITY, AND THE FUTURE OF BIOTECH tells why the biotech industry is falling short of its bright promises; in the process analyzing how the industry works and how companies and policymakers can improve its performance. From the business challenge of translating biotech products to profitable ventures to financing risky investments with long-term uncertainty, SCIENCE BUSINESS draws important connections between science research and business products. This could’ve been featured equally well in our business section but no science student should miss it, and college-level holdings strong in either or both topics must have it.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Rating: 5 / 5
The biotech ‘industry’ came about when it began to appear that new techniques and new technologies had been developed that promised to revolutionize the development and availability of drugs to solve virtually all of mankind’s problems. To enable this revolution to materialize, fortunes have been raised first from venture capitalists and later from the stock market through IPOs.
In the thirty years since biotechnology came about, the industry has seen its sales grow at an almost exponential rate. Yet over the same period of time the biotech companies have not grown at anywhere near the same rate.
The author attributes this to the fundamental differences in the mental attitude between the scientist and the businessman. Neither of these professions is trained to handle the others job, nor are they willing to grant the other the fact that the other just may have skills that are necessary for the formation/operation of a business.
You cannot help but agree with the authors analysis. I also think, however, that fixing these problems is a simple matter. This industry is still too new. Think of building airplanes in 1936, or computers in 1951. The technology will become better known, the successes will become greater, the companies will become bigger, the risks will become better known. Management will get a better handle over what’s going on.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book begins with the insight that good science is different from good business. Beyond this, I found the rest of the book kind of stale.
The author extensively discusses the idiosyncrasies of the biotech industry. He talks about the great amount of capital and trail-and-error required in drug development, supposedly with the intention of arguing that biotech is different from other sectors. However, I kept thinking, “But of course biotech is different from other sectors, it’s a different sector.” What this book lacked, I thought, were more comparisons and similarities between other areas of business. While biotech is the only industry that actively seeks drugs that hit molecular targets, it’s not the only industry that heavily progresses through research and development. I was surprised that the author didn’t tap the extensive history of R&D in other private sectors. After all, there’s an array of specific examples to choose from, be it the microprocessor chip wars or the development of hybrid cars. Using lessons from those endeavors, and connecting them to biotech, I thought, could’ve been pretty novel.
Instead, the author rarely pulls insights from outside of the biotech industry, while maintaining that biotech is new, not fully developed, and can learn a lot from business. As such, the book has a very insular feel and seems very limited in scope.
Rating: 2 / 5