From the Conversable Economist:
The October 2012 issue of Nature Biotechnology offers several articles on the theme of "Commercializing biomedical innovations." The opening "Editorial" sets the stage this way: "Investment in biomedical innovation is not what it once was. Millions of dollars have fled the life sciences risk capital pool. The number of early venture deals in biotech is smaller than ever. Public markets are all but closed, biotech-pharma deals increasingly back-loaded with contingent, rather than upfront, payments. Paths to market are more winding and stonier. Government cuts are closing laboratories and culling blue-sky research. Never has there been a more pressing need to look beyond the existing pools of funding and talent to galvanize biomedical innovation."...MORE
Thus, the papers look at a variety of interactions: interactions between universities and the biomed industry; different business models for biomed firms; how venture capital firms often seem to enter biomed start-ups "too early," well before a commercial payoff can be expected; funding research through nonprofit foundations that promote free dissemination of any findings; and others. But my eye was particularly caught by a proposal by caught by three economists, Jose-Maria Fernandez, Roger M. Stein and Andrew W. Lo, who offer a proposal for "Commercializing biomedical research through securitization techniques."...
