http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/06/15/eli-lilly-ceo-addresses-us-shortfall-in-scientific-innovation/ The blog of Pharmaceutical Technology magazine Thu, 09 May 2013 23:30:55 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/06/15/eli-lilly-ceo-addresses-us-shortfall-in-scientific-innovation/comment-page-1/#comment-30601 cliffintokyo Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:28:00 +0000 http://blog.pharmtech.com/?p=2959#comment-30601 The die is already cast; it is now proven that the 21C pharma business model cannot accommodate or manage basic research, which for some time now has been steadily moving back into academia, where it probably belongs, and from where the innovative healthcare venture businesses emerge, subsequently to be cherry-picked by industry, hungry for potential new products. In these straightened economic times, responsibility for scrutiny and getting (some) value for money from academic research will return to the various government departments. How they will manage this, given that they have previously relied on a self-assessing (serving?), inwardly focused, *old-boys* academic community to maintain *quality* and *standards* (selecting professors, teaching students, training researchers, selecting professors......ad infinitum), is anyone's guess...... There is not much evidence that this cosy, stable environment for academic research and freedom (a doctrine that has been preached for so long that everyone accepts it without question) produces the economic benefits that some governments have been persuaded to trumpet. Is academia as it currently exists, in fact, a luxury that we can no longer afford? The die is already cast; it is now proven that the 21C pharma business model cannot accommodate or manage basic research, which for some time now has been steadily moving back into academia, where it probably belongs, and from where the innovative healthcare venture businesses emerge, subsequently to be cherry-picked by industry, hungry for potential new products.
In these straightened economic times, responsibility for scrutiny and getting (some) value for money from academic research will return to the various government departments. How they will manage this, given that they have previously relied on a self-assessing (serving?), inwardly focused, *old-boys* academic community to maintain *quality* and *standards* (selecting professors, teaching students, training researchers, selecting professors……ad infinitum), is anyone’s guess……
There is not much evidence that this cosy, stable environment for academic research and freedom (a doctrine that has been preached for so long that everyone accepts it without question) produces the economic benefits that some governments have been persuaded to trumpet.
Is academia as it currently exists, in fact, a luxury that we can no longer afford?

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