The Cargo Cult Cargo (The Pipeline)

In order to have a successful run at a Biotech company you don't need to produce a product. As an individual with a PhD or M.D. you can make more than your counterparts in adacemia or in hospitals by working at a biotech company. Your salary, bonuses and stock options will provide you with a nice life until the company goes down. Then you've got the experience needed to land the next job. Make sense?

What are the diseases the Biotech favors? We've talked about the websites and the hubs meant to attract biotech. What areas of human affliction capture the attention of biotechnology? In other words, what kind of cargo are they looking for? What airplanes would they like to see land? The following is a list that comes from surfing the internet to find the patterns formed by Biotech interests. Me thinks money might have something to do with the general pipeline.

Cancer: It's a tough one but a cure is not needed. Paclitaxel is the active ingredient in Taxol. One way of adding a drug to your pipeline is to modify paclitaxel by adding sugar or some tumor targeting molecule. It's been done and the result was one more billionare to the list of filthy rich human beings on this planet. That kind of promise will get your investors purse strings loose. Monoclonal antibodies against cancer proteins are also an easy way to go.

Obesity: Let's face it, we live in a fat country. We're fat because we eat too much and exercise too little. People want a way around that reality. They want a pill. Ka Ching.

Inflammation and arthritus: As we grow older we suffer from stiffness in our bodies. Everyone will want a pill to ease the pain of a stiff knee or a sore shoulder. By classifying these common afflictions of growing old and lethargic as diseases that pills can treat has provided a gold vein in the hills of the human condition that is just beginnig to be tapped.

Alzheimers: This group of sickos can live on for ten or more years. They won't be able to tell you if the drug is helping or not

Type II diebetes: Caused by poor lifestyles. Priime target to sell pills to.

Pain: What comes after aspirin and ibuprofen?

Osteoporosis: Women are afraid of this one. You've got half the population to work with.

Psoriasis: A lot of inflammation drugs can be funneled into programs that work on this condition. It's an easy target where little is expected. No one is going to die but the market is big.

And so we look to the skies for these airplanes to land. Their cargo is money! That is what we really want so we can go out and buy things that are tried and true. Houses, cars, travel, and on and on. It's a beautiful world. You've got to find that one angle and you are in. The paths have been beaten flat. Take the walk. It's not like you have to use science to make discoveries. Just go.