Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech

I found this book to be well-researched, current, and insightful. If you're at all interested in the biotech business, especially in starting a company or investing, read this book first. Pisano's narrative really helps one understand the foundations of the biotech industry, and sheds some light on what does, and doesn't, work within that industry. The fact that it's off the Harvard Business School Press gives it additional credibility, which is well deserved. A wealth of references, as well as a listing of the companies listed in the study, give the reader both a sense of the research that went into the book and a start on the search for more resources on the subject.

For my money, most business school professors write with a detached, dry atmosphere about business topics. Not Gary Pisano! He has a strong point of view that the ecosystem for biotech is not working well. His observations about why are right to the point and convincing. His prescriptions are well worth considering. If you're new to biotech, this is a great book to start out with. I would then proceed to Building Biotechnology, which is also a fine book.

While many of us in the biotech industry are aware of products, companies and issues, this invaluable book is not only a great resource but an important guide and should be recommended reading for all biotech industry executives as well as investors.

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.

Really just a wonderful introspective into the realm of the biotechnology sector. The writing style is excellent, entertaining, and very analytical. He does a fantastic job of illustrating the scientific challenges that make biotech unique. My favorite chapter in the first section (Section I) entitled, "The Science of the Business" was chapter 4, "Drug R & D and the Organizational Challenges". Here, he explains quite remarkably the differences between Drug R & D and other high tech industries, which he breaks down into the terms of "modularity" and "integrality"; just fantastic! The second section (Section II) discusses, "The Business of the Science" which is equally interesting. In this section my favorite chapter was chapter 6, "The Performance of the Biotech Industry: Promise Versus Reality". Here he explores the financial and operational issues pertaining to the sector. I think manager/mba-types will like this second section. What I can say is that I learned quite a bit from this second section including info on raising capital (e.g. IPO, Partnering, licensing, etc.), and much about "the monetization of Intellectual Property". Overall, I must say this is - IMHO - an unbiased expose on the biotech sector. In order to truly understand its history, its unique challenges, one should strongly consider this book b/c it hinges upon a number of terrific concepts that need to be discussed and illustrated for the unaware. The author assumes the reader knows nothing, so pretty much anyone with a penchant for biotech will enjoy. I learned a lot from this book and it was fun too. Five star rating all the way!