Today I attended a reception for the Health Sciences Technology program at MIT. The point was to let scientists from all walks of life get together to meet each other to find mentors and friends. One person at my table was the VP of research at a nearby pharmaceutical company. He had a lot to say about the bad rap that pharma gets, and especially the attitude of academic scientists toward those who go into industry. I am a bit shamed to admit, when he first said he was in industry, the first thoughts that really came to my mind were poor guy, i guess something happened along the way so he didn't make it... which of course, illustrates his point of the stereotype exactly. From talking to him for the evening, he seemed like an extremely intelligent person with a real interest in making a difference. He brought up some good points like, how he got to give a dying person a new drug, and suddenly they weren't dying anymore. Academic scientists just don't make drugs, he said. He spoke reasonably about both science and industry, which shouldn't have been a surprise since he obviously had to have been trained at an academic institution before going into industry. I have no explanation why he surprised me so much at so many points during the conversation, except that the negative perception of industry also dominates in my mind. He addressed the gathering at one point, and he stressed "going into industry is not just about 'selling out'. there are actually good reasons.."
One of the central components in the study of cancer these days has to deal with the turmor environment, for example the fact that tumors need blood vessels to carry nutrients to them for survival. Judah Folkman, who pioneered this concept had so much trouble getting funding to study this phenomenon. The scientific community simply didn't believe him. So he turns to industry, in a never before heard of collaboration. Apparently there's now a book on his story.
So I think, in my ongoing pursuit of an open mind, I should revamp my perceptions. Industry and academia have different goals, and although we each hold our own goals high and mighty, they serve a purpose together.
I apologize for my scrambled entries lately, as I haven't had much time to muse or write. I see I've gotten quite a few faithful readers now.
2 comments:
yeap, don't think of industry as bad... they implement and improve on what you discover!
You definitely need industry and I don't think they are inherently good or bad but just keep in mind that their survival almost always involves the investors and profit more so than patients or healthcare providers.
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