Over to the Dark Side

Back now from my trip out to the wild, wooly, and wet west, I noted a story by Luke Timmerman, ace biotech reporter for Xconomy Seattle, that Tachi Yamada, former president of the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had joined the venture capital firm of Frazier Healthcare Ventures as a [...]

Deal of the Year 2011

For those of you with a better memory than mine, you likely remember last October’s Big Deal announced between Pfizer, the world’s biggest (annual revenues of $70 B plus) and most at-risk (due to patent expirations) pharma, and Biocon, India’s small (annual revenues of under $150 M), up-and-coming biotech company (Biocon, Biocon).  In it, Pfizer [...]

BIO Break

I put my 2010 corporate earnings into negative territory this week by attending the world’s largest confab of biotech and pharmaceutical companies- the Bio Industry Organization’s BIO 2010, held May 2-6, at McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL (BIO 2010).  I am guessing that there are more than 15,000 attendees here, representing about every aspect [...]

USAID and Innovation

The recent Life Science Innovation Northwest conference (held March 16-17 in Seattle, Innovation NW) had a prominent yet unusual luncheon keynote speaker.  It was Dr. Rajiv Shah, the new administrator of the US Agency for International Development which is better know for its role in international aid rather than innovation in biotech.  Dr. Shah has [...]

Pictures at an Exhibition

One of our best local museums, the Museum of Our National Heritage, is hosting a traveling exhibit, “Treasured Lands,” a collection of landscape photographs taken at 58 National Parks over a 15-year period by Dr. Quang-Tuan Luong (MONH), and I had the pleasure of viewing them this past weekend.  Hauling a heavy 5X7 large format [...]