OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER | January 2007
(Volume VI, No. 7)
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER | January 2007 |
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RESEARCH & COMMERCIALIZATION NEWS
9th Annual Regional SBIR Conference to be Held at CET Topics Will Include STTR, Industry Partnering and Tech Transfer Learn more about the $2 billion SBIR/STTR federal grant program and the secrets of success with federal grant programs. Meet local service providers and experts who can help you succeed as a start-up company. Meet officials from large companies, including Boeing and Caterpillar; and universities, eager to partner for R&D, technology transfer and commercialization, including UM-St. Louis, Saint Louis University and Washington University. Schedule one-on-one sessions with program managers from the Department of Energy, US Air Force, NASA, the NSF, the SBA and more. The Conference is sponsored by the Center for Emerging Technologies and UM-St. Louis. l DATE: Thursday and Friday, January 25-26, 2007 LOCATION: Center for Emerging Technologies, 4041 Forest Park Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108 MORE INFORMATION/REGISTRATION: SBIRConf 07 (PDF)
From NIH Extramural Nexus January 2007 A dramatic rise in applications and growing difficulty in recruiting qualified reviewers are challenging NIH peer review. At the same time, the pace of science has increased and NIH needs a review system that can keep up with it. After a year of listening to leaders of the scientific community and colleagues here at NIH, Dr. Antonio Scarpa, Director, Center for Scientific Review (CSR) in collaboration with other NIH senior officials, has developed a collective vision for NIH peer review. In fall 2006, Dr. Scarpa and his colleagues presented this vision to the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee (PRAC), which enthusiastically endorsed it. PRAC’s support for the key recommended changes, listed below, was particularly strong:
The NIH Leadership Forum subsequently endorsed efforts to explore ways to achieve these goals. Other efforts to improve peer review by reducing burdens on reviewers and improving internal efficiencies are focused on:
CSR also announced a series of open house workshops with community and NIH leaders to discuss the organization of review groups and initiatives for 2007. Information on these activities is provided in the fall issue of the Peer Review Notes. l
NIH 2007 Fiscal Operations Plan Announced Excerpted from NIH Extramural Nexus January 2007 The National Institutes of Health is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) at fiscal year 2006 budget levels. The CR will be in effect until February 15, 2007 and possibly longer. Under this resolution, NIH will continue to make non-competing awards at 80 percent of previously committed levels. When NIH receives its appropriation for fiscal year 2007, these awards will be adjusted. If you have specific questions about your award, please contact the grants management specialist identified in your Notice of Grant Award. For all other questions please write to us at DDER@NIH.gov. l Additional Information: NIH Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards–Fiscal Year 2007
New Leader of the FDA is Confirmed by the Senate Excerpted from The New York Times, nytimes.com December 8, 2006 By STEPHANIE SAUL The Senate confirmed Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (Dec. 7, 2006), with some lawmakers expressing hope that his leadership would bring stability to an agency hobbled by turnover and accused of poor oversight of the nation’s drug supply. Dr. von Eschenbach, 65, a surgeon, became acting commissioner in September 2005 after the abrupt resignation of Dr. Lester Crawford. Previously, he had served as chief academic officer at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and had led the National Cancer Institute. In the past 10 years, no commissioner has served more than two years. A report released in September by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies, deplored a “lack of stable leadership” at the agency. The report said that turnover at the helm would compromise efforts to improve the effectiveness of the agency, which the report criticized as rife with internal squabbles, poor management and outdated rules. Dr. von Eschenbach was formally nominated to the position of commissioner in March, but his confirmation was delayed by a series of objections in the form of “holds” by senators from both parties who said they were protesting everything from the agency’s delay of Plan B emergency contraceptives to the administration’s stance on drug reimportation, or the purchase of prescription drugs in countries where they are cheaper.
Senator Michael B. Enzi, a Wyoming Republican who heads the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, urged Dr. von Eschenbach’s confirmation, citing the need for a permanent leader. “The FDA has been without a confirmed commissioner for all but 18 months of the last five and a half years,” Mr. Enzi said. “Ever see a business that could run for five and a half years without a boss except for 18 months?” Dr. von Eschenbach, a urologic surgeon who has been treated for melanoma and prostate cancer, has said he believes that new drugs should be made available as quickly as possible, particularly those for life-threatening illnesses. As acting commissioner, Dr. von Eschenbach moved this year to make Plan B, the emergency contraceptive, available to adults without a prescription. This silenced some administration critics who had complained that conservative political interference at the agency had previously blocked the drug’s broader availability. l
Top Five Nanotech Breakthroughs of 2006 Excerpted from the December issue of Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report John Wolfe This year saw a slew of remarkable nanotech breakthroughs, and narrowing down the top five was no easy task. One major theme of 2006 was the intersection of computing and biology--integrated circuits were used to study everything from neural activity to tissue dynamics, and disposable bio labs-on-a-chip became a reality. One Harvard research team, led by Robert Westervelt, created a hybrid chip that can control the motion of biological cells; with the chip, researchers can assemble cells one by one into artificial tissue, which can then be used to test the efficacy of various drugs. This year also brought us several steps closer to nanotube computing, as many research groups developed new ways to custom design nanotubes. Researchers at Stanford University and at Northwestern University came up with two novel ways to sort nanotubes by their electrical properties. In addition, a group led by James Tour at Rice University developed a revolutionary method first envisioned by the legendary Richard Smalley for growing mass quantities of nanotubes from nanotube "seeds." These methods will find near-term applications in innovative materials, high-definition displays and solar cells, among others. While many breakthroughs came out of academia, the corporate sector held its own. For instance, Motorola's carbon nanotube TVs are ready to leave the lab and hit the market, outperforming today's flat panel displays and IBM is leading the way to nanoscale computing. From biotech to electronics, it's been an exciting year, and the following breakthroughs are the cream of the crop. So without further ado, we give you the top five nanotech breakthroughs of 2006. 1) DNA ORIGAMI Researcher: Paul W. K. Rothemund (Caltech) The sheer simplicity and versatility of Dr. Rothemund's "DNA origami" renders it a revolution in nanoscale architecture. Rothemund developed a technique to fold a single long strand of DNA into any 2D shape held together by a few shorter DNA pieces. He created software to quickly determine what short sequences will fold the main strand into the desired shape, such as the DNA smiley face he built, which is a mere 100nm across and 2nm thick, or his nanoscale map of the Americas. They sound silly, but these creations are proof of concept: here is a method for building scaffolding that can be used to hold quantum dots in a quantum computer or proteins in a multi-enzyme factory, to name just a few potential applications. 2) NANOMAGNETS TO CLEAN UP DRINKING WATER Researchers: Vicki Colvin, Amy Kan, William Yu, J.T.Mayo, Arjun Prakash, Joshua Falkner, Sujin Yean, Lili Cong and Heather Shipley (Rice University) According to the World Bank, nearly 65 million people are at risk from arsenic-related health problems due to millions of contaminated wells, especially in developing nations like India and Bangladesh. Now, a research team led by Vicki Colvin at Rice University has developed a simple and inexpensive way to solve the problem. Rust nanoparticles, which have magnetic properties, bind to arsenic; the rust and arsenic can then be lifted out of the water by nothing more than a handheld magnet. The breakthrough was the realization that the manipulation of nanoscale rust would not require huge magnetic fields, as was expected. The unique properties at the nanoscale cause the rust nanoparticles to act as one large magnet that can be easily drawn out of the water, leaving behind drinking water pure enough to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards. The method, which requires no electricity or extensive hardware, will have a global impact. 3) ARRAYS CONNECT NANOWIRE TRANSISTORS WITH NEURONS Researchers: Charles Lieber, Fernando Patolsky, Brian Timko, Guihua Yu, Ying Fang, Andrew Greytak, and Gengfeng Zheng (Harvard University) In the first ever two-way interface between nanoelectronics and living neurons, Dr. Lieber and his team have created a revolutionary way to study brain activity. Silicon nanowires link up with the axons and dendrites of live mammalian neurons, creating artificial synapses between the two and allowing scientists to study and manipulate signal propagation in neural networks. The device can measure the brain's electric signals with unprecedented sensitivity, amplifying signals from up to 50 places on a single neuron. It will allow researchers to accurately model complex brain activity, pave the way for powerful neural prosthetics, and open the possibility for hybrid nanoelectronic and biological information processing. 4) SINGLE NANOTUBE ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS Researchers: Phaedon Avouris, Zhihong Chen, Joerg Appenzeller, Yu-Ming Lin, Paul Solomon (IBM's T.J.Watson Research Center); Jennifer Sippel-Oakley and Andrew Rinzler (University of Florida); Jinyao Tang and Shalom Wind (Columbia University) This year, IBM unveiled the most complex and highest performance electrical circuit based on a single nanotube, demonstrating the applicability of CMOS technology and paving the way for the future of computing. The integrated logic circuit consists of 12 transistors made of palladium and aluminum tracing the length of a single carbon nanotube. The circuit is hundreds of times slower than today's silicon processors, but it is 100,000 times faster than any previous carbon nanotube device and has the potential to be much faster. Unlike silicon, it doesn't require doping, which scatters electron flow and is far more heat efficient. Expect to first see these nanotube circuits in hybrid nanotube-silicon computers. 5) NANOPARTICLES DESTROY PROSTATE CANCER Researchers: Robert Langer (MIT); Omid Farokhzad, Benjamin Teply, Ines Sherifi, Jerome Richie (BWH and Harvard); Jianjun Cheng (U.of Illinois); Sangyong Jon (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea); Philip Kantoff (Dana Farber Cancer Institute) Here's one battle with cancer where cancer is losing dramatically--researchers at MIT and Harvard have custom-designed nanoparticles that hone in on prostate cancer cells and deliver doses of targeted chemotherapy. In trials with mice, which were given human prostate cancer, a single injection of these nanoparticles completely eradicated tumors in five out of seven animals, significantly reducing tumor size in the other two. The work may be replicable for treatments of breast and pancreatic cancer, as well. Look forward to seeing these cancer-killers in human clinical trials. Looking Ahead To 2007: What do we have to look forward to in the coming year? We are sure to see more groundbreaking developments in the emerging interface of nanoelectronics and biology. The number of novel nanoparticles for biomedical applications is poised for accelerated growth, and there will be a special emphasis on combination products that can be used for medical imaging and targeted drug delivery, especially for cancer. As the corporate world continues to go green, environmental nanotech will come to the forefront, with applications in fuel cells, solar energy and hydrogen storage, to name a few. There's a lot looming on the horizon and we will keep you several steps ahead of the game on the pages of this newsletter. Here's to another great year of thinking big about thinking small! l
FY2006: A Record-Breaking Year for the USPTO Patent and Trademark Quality Best on Record in Over 20 Years Excerpted from United States Patent and Trademark Office online news December 22 , 2006 Online at: http://www.uspto.gov/main/homepagenews/bak2006dec22.htm In Fiscal Year 2006, the Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) set new Agency records in goals related to quality, production, electronic filing, telework, electronic processing and hiring. “The USPTO has spent the last four years concentrating on meeting or exceeding objective measures, as required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (“The Results Act”), continuing to make system-wide process improvements, and using related metrics and measures for gauging progress,” noted Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas. “I am proud that fiscal year 2006 was a record-breaking year for the USPTO. “These records reflect the hard work and sound decisions of more than 8,000 USPTO employees.” (NOTE: ONLY PATENT STATISTICS INCLUDED BELOW. TRADEMARK INFORMATION AVAILABLE ONLINE.) >>Quality and Production
>>Hiring and Training
>>Electronic Filing and Processing
>>Telework
>>International Relations and Enforcement
Charts detailing goals met, patent quality results, and the patent allowance rate can be found below. Full results of the agency’s progress can be found in USPTO’s FY 2006 Performance and Accountability Report at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/annual/2006/2006annualreport.pdf. [download PDF viewer] .l
Diabetes Breakthrough: Toronto Scientists Cure Disease in Mice Excerpted from the National Post (Toronto, Ontario) December 15, 2006 By TOM BLACKWELL In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease... Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. "I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more. Their conclusions upset conventional wisdom that Type 1 diabetes, the most serious form of the illness that typically first appears in childhood, was solely caused by auto-immune responses -- the body's immune system turning on itself. They also conclude that there are far more similarities than previously thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and that nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma and Crohn's disease. Insulin replacement therapy is the only treatment of Type 1, and cannot prevent many of the side effects, from heart attacks to kidney failure. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to shift glucose into the cells that need it. In Type 2 diabetes, the insulin that is produced is not used effectively -- something called insulin resistance -- also resulting in poor absorption of glucose. The problems stem partly from inflammation -- and eventual death -- of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. Dr. Dosch had concluded in a 1999 paper that there were surprising similarities between diabetes and multiple sclerosis, a central nervous system disease. His interest was also piqued by the presence around the insulin-producing islets of an "enormous" number of nerves, pain neurons primarily used to signal the brain that tissue has been damaged. Suspecting a link between the nerves and diabetes, he and Dr. Salter used an old experimental trick -- injecting capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, to kill the pancreatic sensory nerves in mice that had an equivalent of Type 1 diabetes. "Then we had the biggest shock of our lives," Dr. Dosch said. Almost immediately, the islets began producing insulin normally "It was a shock - really out of left field, because nothing in the literature was saying anything about this." It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that are instrumental in the proper functioning of the islets. Further study by the team, which also involved the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were releasing too little of the neuropeptides, resulting in a "vicious cycle" of stress on the islets. So next they injected the neuropeptide "substance P" in the pancreases of diabetic mice, a demanding task given the tiny size of the rodent organs. The results were dramatic. The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes was gone. Some have remained in that state for as long as four months, with just one injection. They also discovered that their treatments curbed the insulin resistance that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that insulin resistance is a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the two illnesses are quite similar. While pain scientists have been receptive to the research, immunologists have voiced skepticism at the idea of the nervous system playing such a major role in the disease. Editors of Cell put the Toronto researchers through vigorous review to prove the validity of their conclusions, though an editorial in the publication gives a positive review of the work. The researchers are now setting out to confirm that the connection between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in humans. If it does, they will see if their treatments have the same effects on people as they did on mice. l NOTE: 14.6 million Americans and 2 million Canadians have been diagnosed with diabetes, 10% of which have Type 1. An estimated additional 6.2 million Americans have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.
Research Article Withdrawn from Journal Cell Excerpted from Reuters January 2, 2007 By RALPH JENNINGS TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan research team has formally retracted its microbiology article published in a leading global journal on biological research because of inflated figures, an official from the university in charge said on (January 2). The retraction follows a similar, higher profile scandal involving stem-cell research in South Korea and threatens to soil Taiwan's reputation for scientific study. A National Chung Hsing University doctoral degree holder last month asked Cell, a U.S.-based journal, to withdraw an October article based on his research challenging common notions about bacteria and DNA, said Yeh Shyi-dong, vice chancellor of the university. The four-person team, which was based at the university in the city of Taichung at the time of its research, inflated numbers on illustrations with the article, Yeh said. National Chung Hsing University, home to one of Taiwan's oldest life sciences schools, formed an investigative committee with scholars from another Taiwan university when mainland Chinese scholars began to suspect flaws in the research following questions raised on a Chinese Internet site, Yeh said. In a separate investigation, the university is checking the overall accuracy of the research team's findings, Yeh said. l
Best Places to Work 2007: Google and Genentech Top Fortune's List with Unconventional Cultures In a recent survey, Fortune magazine has ranked Google as the best employer of the year for 2007 followed by Genentech. Here are excerpts from Fortune’s magazine’s website (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2007/) on how unconventional working environments at both Google and Genentech build strong employee loyalty and promote innovative, productive workers. “In a now famous founders' letter Larry Page and Sergey Brin distributed to prospective Google shareholders before the company's 2004 IPO: "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one." Mission accomplished. “Google's employment roster is now pushing 10,000, and, in addition to the Mountain View headquarters, the company has burgeoning offices in Bangalore, New York City and Irvine, Calif., among many other cities. In its earliest days Google was more or less a postdoctoral extension of the Stanford computer science department, from which founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin and a goodly number of their pals sprang. “Teamwork is the norm, especially for big projects. Keith Coleman, a 26-year-old product manager who works on Gmail, oversees a ten-person secret project whose team members have taken over their own conference room. "They've given up their big space to be crammed into this room to get things done," says Coleman. The hideaway happens to be where Gmail's chat function was created. Lounge music is usually playing, engineers wander in and out, and there's no formal daily meeting, though the team tends to congregate between five and seven in the evening. "If I could capture anything that's great about Google," says Coleman, "it's that room." “ “Hours are long - typical for Silicon Valley - and it's not unusual for engineers to be seen in the hallways at 3 a.m. debating some esoteric algorithmic conundrum. But Google keeps staff energized with plenty of free food and entertainment. “ “Judging by the vibe at Google's weekly user-interface design meeting, which Fortune sat in on one recent Monday, these people have no problem getting down to business. Just before the proceedings begin, a dozen Googlers sit around a conference room, fiddling with their laptops. Their affect is studiously casual, but the giant digital clock on the wall gives another impression: This is a no-bumbling zone. Life for Google employees at the Mountain View campus is like college. It feels like the brainiest university imaginable - one in which every kid can afford a sports car (though geeky hybrids are cooler here than hot rods). Here the shabbily dressed engineers always will be the big men (and, yes, women) on campus. "Hard-core geeks are here because there's no place they'd rather be," says Dennis Hwang, a Google Webmaster. The people at Google, it should be stated, almost universally see themselves as the most interesting people on the planet. Googlers tend to be happy-go-lucky on the outside, but Type A at their core. Ask one what he or she is doing, and it's never "selling ads" or "writing code." No, they're on a quest "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That's from the actual mission statement, by the way, which employees can and do cite with cloying frequency. Googlers can play beach volleyball on campus. Other fun activities at Google include Foosball, videogames, pool tables, ping pong and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. Google's founders have sought out a role model for building their culture, and it's not a tech company or an ad giant. It's Genentech, the biotech company that is No. 2 on our Best Companies list (and was No. 1 last year). Genentech Work that really matters -- it's what makes Genentech one the top two best companies to work for. But there's plenty else to like about this low-key, high-tech biotech located just north of San Francisco International Airport. For starters, 29-yearold Genentech is not just the very first biotech; it's the brightest star in a promising industry that has chronically under-delivered. Genentech's secret, anybody here will tell you, is its culture. And that is what has propelled the company to the top of this year's list. With its storybook view of San Francisco Bay, the place feels more like a college campus than a pillar of the FORTUNE 500. Employees don't get assignments, they get "appointments." They traverse the grounds by shuttle bus and bicycles provided by the company. Every Friday night there's at least one "ho-ho" -- Genentechese for kegger -- a tradition that began in the '70s when the workforce was mostly a handful of rowdy post-docs barely out of grad school. All this would be way too dot-com to make business sense if it weren't for another performer who took the stage that day -- and who got about as much applause as the bands. That would be Art Levinson, Genentech's impish, brilliant scientist CEO, dressed for the occasion in tennis shoes and a black CLONE OR DIE T-shirt. The 55-year-old Levinson, who once bet his colleagues that five of them could fit inside an ice machine (they did), has made mostly right bets for the company ever since he took the helm in 1995 -- championing its science, creating a stream of new drugs, and winning over employees by making clear to all that there would be no butt-covering culture at Genentech. In fact, Genentech's culture has a whole lot in common with those of two other Bay Area superstars: Google and Apple. All three imbue employees with idealism. Apple keeps a laser like focus on the customer. Google's motto is DO NO EVIL. Genentech's: IN BUSINESS FOR LIFE. All three companies flout conventional wisdom and take a damn-the-torpedoes approach to nay-sayers. All three know one another well. Levinson is on the boards of Google and Apple; he and Steve Jobs are often seen hanging out at Genentech, deep in discussion. And all three put huge emphasis on attracting the best and the brightest. Genentech awards sabbaticals to stave off burnout. To keep creativity alive, both it and Google encourage their scientists and engineers to spend fully 20 percent of each workweek pursuing pet projects. Many corporations think it's terribly cutting-edge to maintain an arm's-length relationship with employees. These guys want you to move in. Since the day the company was founded in 1976, Genentech's culture has been its competitive advantage. Founders Bob Swanson, a 29-year-old venture capitalist who studied the power of teams at MIT, and Herb Boyer, a pioneer gene splicer from the University of California at San Francisco, knew the success of their venture depended on luring and keeping big-brain bioscience talent. Within two years Genentech had concocted human insulin, which in 1982 became the first biotech drug to go to market. The company turned its first profit in 1979, the year before it went public, and has remained profitable ever since -- despite a close call in the late 1980s, when it lost focus and stopped introducing new drugs, and the stock price flagged badly enough to make the company a takeover target. (Swiss drug giant Roche took a majority stake in 1990 and has let Genentech run independently ever since.) When Levinson was tapped to become CEO in 1995, Wall Street was skeptical but insiders cheered. Levinson was head of research, a top scientist, and astute at making calls on people and R&D. During his first two years as CEO, Levinson persuaded the board to plow 50 percent of revenues back into research. (You read that number right. It's why, he believes, four of the company's 13 drugs are less than three years old, 30 more drugs are in the pipeline, and all eight of its clinical trials last year were successful.) He also decided to focus the company's science on "significant unmet needs" in the fields of oncology, immunology, and tissue growth and repair. He got rid of projects (and people) that didn't fit the program and forced fiefdoms like product development and basic research to work closely together. To head drug development, he tapped Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who had begun her career as an oncologist and has never forgotten what it's like to tell a young mother with breast cancer that she has run out of options. (Desmond-Hellmann is now president.) Genentech pours tremendous energy into hiring people with that kind of passion. In fact, it can take five or six visits and 20 interviews to snag a job. The process is meant partly to screen out the free agents -- people preoccupied with salary, title, and personal advancement. If candidates ask too many such questions, "Boom, wrong profile," says Levinson. The gantlet is also designed to let job candidates know exactly what they're getting themselves into. "We're extremely nonhierarchical," Levinson says. "We're not wearing ties. People don't call us doctor. We don't have special dining rooms." (They aren't even assigned parking spaces, and it's hell in the morning to find a spot.) Executive job seekers from Big Pharma, especially, find that a jolt, he says. "A lot of them say, 'But I like being different! I like being special!' Well, you're not going to be special here. If that's important to you, that's fine. But you won't be happy here." Here status is conveyed not by snagging the fanciest title or the biggest office (CEO Levinson's measures about 9 feet by 12 feet and is done up with low-end metal office furniture). It's defined by matching wits and taking chances. Or seeing who can take the dare. At Genentech nobody dresses up, except on Halloween. This past Halloween, Desmond-Hellmann spent the day as Snow White, and Levinson and the rest of the management team dressed as the Six Dwarfs (minus Dopey). They were en route to hand out candy at another office across town when their SUV convoy drove by archrival Amgen. Levinson hailed the driver to stop and told the group he wanted to have their picture taken on the Amgen front lawn, posed around the Amgen sign. They did, but Levinson was not entirely satisfied. What he really wanted, he told them, was a picture of Snow White and the Dwarfs inside the Amgen lobby. Once or twice a year, staff scientists and researchers must defend their work before the Research Review Committee, the group of 13 Ph.D.s that decides how to allot the research budget. Some find the experience nerve-wracking, and that's okay, says Levinson. "I don't want people terrified, but it should not be a cakewalk either." True innovation takes guts. Industry-wide, new drugs on average cost about $800 million and take up to 12 years to develop. More than 90 percent of the drugs in clinical development never reach the market, including half of those that make it to late-stage clinical trials. That's why so many big drug companies are running out of new drugs. For a long time it was easier and lucrative enough to pursue what Vishva Dixit, vice president of research, calls the "detergent" strategy -- creating me-too drugs in big established markets as if they were laundry soap, and then spending big bucks on marketing to steal share from rival pharmas. It is the kind of long-term, high-risk research that makes Genentech employees proud -- and glad, they say, that they aren't at Big Pharma. Scoffing at Big Pharma may be both great sport and an effective rallying cry, but everybody here is painfully aware that Genentech also runs the risk of getting too large. By the end of this year, 40 percent of the workforce will have spent less than three years at Genentech; another 40 percent of its managers will be new to their positions. So the company is working furiously to acculturate the rookies. When Levinson sees signs of culture atrophy, he pounces, as he did in an e-mail to senior managers in December about "the spread of unintelligible, gibberish-laden PowerPoint presentations.... I have recently sat through several presentations that were simply incomprehensible -- mind-numbing, bloated discourses that were full of buzzwords and otherwise devoid of meaningful content. This is a serious problem, and the worst part is that it's spreading like the disease it is." (His abhorrence of corporate-speak helps explain why Levinson loathes consultants. "They suck you dry," he says.) l
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