By Michael McCoy
(Chemical & Engineering News, March 15, 2010) Economists are calling the past 24 months or so the Great Recession, but you wouldn’t know it during a visit to a typical drug discovery lab or pharmaceutical chemical manufacturing plant. That’s because the discovery, development, and commercialization of new active pharmaceutical ingredients is a multiyear endeavor that transcends business cycles. From initial discovery to market launch, the process of creating a new drug can encompass multiple economic ups and downs. Of course, the drug industry is not immune to the vicissitudes of economic fortune. Small biotech firms depend on venture capitalists to provide funding, and funds dry up during periods of financial hardship. Even profitable big drug companies seem more inclined to cut back when the business world around them is doing the same. Click here to read more…