Quote

Biotech research is incredibly important for health-care innovation.

One of the things that launched the strength in biotech is when the pharmaceutical industry itself got a little slow.

I hope that the image of gene therapy is changing. It seems to be.

Gene therapy technology is much like computing technology. We had to build the super computer which cost $8 million in 1960. Now everyone has technologies that work predictably and at a cost the average person can afford.

Getting a traditional pharmaceutical to the market can cost a billion dollars or more. Newer, more tailored and targeted drugs called biologics are even more complex and expensive. Simple economics dictates that companies and venture funds will invest more in products that can generate a sufficient return.

Biohackers want to tinker; do fun science; and, in the process, accelerate the pace of biotech innovation.

I think gene therapy and nanotechnology go hand in hand.

What we do in the laboratory is we try to design drugs that will not just eradicate cancer cells but will eradicate their homes.

It's easy to complain that pharmaceutical companies place profits over people and apparently care more about hair loss than TB. However, many in the pharmaceutical industry would be glad for the opportunity to reorient their research toward medicines that are truly needed, provided only that such research is financially sustainable.

Biomedical research is only as good as its delivery. Distribution of medicines by charities is no more than a stopgap.