Can science be a business?

Science Business. Image from Amazon

Harvard Business School Professor Gary P. Pisano recently published a very interesting-looking book: Science Business: The Future Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech.

Harvard also interviewed him about his research, the future of the industry, and what lessons managers might learn from an industry in structural disharmony. The interview is available here.

Pisano tries to figure out why biotech has never fulfilled its much-touted potential ($300 billion invested over 30 years with only a very few companies actually earning a profit) and makes some suggestions for ways to improve the “anatomy” of the industry and ensure it “will serve the demands of both science and business.”

There’s also an expanded article by Pisano in the October issue of the Harvard Business Review that’s worthwhile, but you have to subscribe to access it.

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Tags: biotechnology, industry, science