It's no secret that the drug pipeline in the world of Big Pharma is drying up. The new pharmaceutical model has been to slash research and development and to acquire biotech companies and/or patents. As a result, pharmaceutical companies are on the hunt to buy biotech companies with promising drugs in the pipeline. More specifically, they are on the hunt for biotech companies with promising drugs in the pipeline that are successfully nearing the end of Phase II trials.
Whether this new model will succeed remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: If the number of new drugs decline due to lower commercialization rates of new technology, than the biotech industry in general will be in serious trouble. At best, the industry as a whole will be underperforming.
What could cause a lower decline in commercialization rates of new technology? The increasingly lackadaisical nature of technology transfer departments.
As Gerald Barnett noted in a piece he wrote titled Bad Science and University Transfer, tech transfer departments need to do a better job verifying and marketing new technology. Unfortunately, what tech transfer departments really need is what they don't have: Entrepreneurial drive. That only comes from people with a vested interest in commercial success. Expecting a university bureaucracy, which is the epitome of a "play it safe" culture, to function in an entrepreneurial capacity, is ridiculous.
What's needed is to have the scientists of discovery take a lead role. If they are not interested in the job, than the tech transfer should go out of the way to find someone who can. Letting life saving discoveries sit on the shelf hurts biotech, as well as humanity. Tech transfer departments across this country can and should do better.
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