A decade ago perhaps I would have jumped at the idea of joining some outfit that was putting big pharma retirees and hundreds of millions of dollars together. As Sky reports Sir Chris Evans is doing just that with ex-luminaries from Lilly, Wyeth, Sandoz, with a little assistance from an ex-prime minister and deep pocketed investors in the Gulf. Believe me if it was that easy to bring a drug to market someone would have done this earlier. It seems like they will work it as a virtual type company, licensing rejects from other big pharma and taking them through the clinic. I do not think the amounts of money mentioned ($750M ) will go very far in this quest. Maybe the investors should read some of the articles on the cost and risks involved in drug development. Sky quote this as a game-changer type deal which is exactly the kind of hyperbole that got pharma into the situation it is in.
So what does one do? As I have said before, just apeing big pharma is not going to be as transformative as potentially taking a new angle to do drug discovery R&D differently. Get young scientists with new ideas, take risks, have experienced researchers to guide them and see what results. With respect, taking lots of pharma retirees, old molecules and retreading them does not sound so game changing, more like “mutton dressed as lamb”.
Still waiting for someone to offer something new? Any suggestions?
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