I agree, we probably aren’t going to see any sort of big pharma presence in Houston in the near term future. The economy will recover, although it remains to be seen what will happen in the pharma industry – if government forays into healthcare result in the institution of drug price controls, etc., who knows what will happen.

We live in interesting times, to be sure.

Sure, ideally, we’d want experienced Big Pharma executives, but a lot of leadership and business skills will translate. The big energy companies in town do a great job of executive development. They move their stars around so that they get exposure and experience in multiple aspects of business. Many of them could adapt quickly to leadership roles in life sciences startups.

The big question is: how many of these execs would be willing to take a chance on a life sciences startup? There probably aren’t many, but how many do we need? Given where we are, if we could place 10 Houston execs in leadership positions at life science startups, wouldn’t that make a difference? Maybe this economic downturn will set a couple of these executives free?

It’s something to consider. Given the number of layoffs in the pharma industry these days, I’m not going to hold my breath for a large R&D facility to be built here.

Investors like to invest in companies that are being run by management who has “been there, done that”, and the pool of local individuals who can lay claim to successfully commercializing drugs/vaccines/therapeutics is just not that deep. The device arena is a little different – there is more depth there.

I’ve heard the oft-repeated mantra that local academic institutions need to “do more” to stimulate technology commercialization. That may well be true (although I think the Rice Alliance is doing an outstanding job as it is), but the local academic institutions are only a part of the local innovation ecosystem. A number of years ago, our institution was under pressure to “start more companies” because that was going to be the route by which we could “catch up” to the Bostons and San Diegos of the world. The act of starting companies in and of itself won’t address the problem if many of the companies end up being undercapitalized and can’t successfully advance their technologies.

I really think that in order to catalyze the next “leap forward”, a mechanism needs to be found to bring in more experienced human capital. There has been talk of trying to lure a pharma R&D presence to the Houston area, but I’m not sure about the level of resources that have been committed to such an effort.

Of course, we’re all going to have to wait out the current bout of economic turmoil before we can worry too much about trying to grow the local biotech industry.

Either way I think dialogue is important. This is the starting point. Naturally with a group of smart people good ideas will be born. If commercializing is an issue and receiving money to support growth is a goal then maybe we should call up the Houston Chronicle and ask if we could rent out a section dedicated to current, promising technology just so the public can read this and keep up. I’m sure there are a bunch of nerds in Houston who would hone an interest in this. With dialogue on both fronts, intra and internally, the buzz probably would allow some things to happen.
Either way you guys need to get dedicated scientists like me working in an area like the biotech companies so they won’t bust. I really don’t want to work at a university where you have uncommitted workers dragging their ass in at 1030 am and basically wasting materials (i.e. Western blot buffers since it is likely your blots won’t develop b/c you were too mind distracted to insert the correct plasmid you needed, with the antibody codon inserted into your competant cells to begin with) where I could get to work in a lab that’s serious. Problem is that every time I try to find a job in the biotech company area, it seems either their labs are in New Mexico or they move after 4-5 months. What the H yo? Hey it’s a 2 way street, if youre a solid company in houston and you want talent then send out flyers to all grad programs in houston so we can know where the heck you guys are. I really don’t want to go to law school and do “IP law”. TMC put up some biotech info on your website so people like me can know what specific areas you need work. Ridiculous yo.

We also want them thinking about how they can get their technology out of the lab and into the clinics. The evidence — in terms of number of startup companies, VC deals, biotech employees, etc. — shows that Houston scientists, unlike their peers, are not that making the leap from invention to commercialization. That’s why Houston is out of balance. Compared to our peers, San Francisco, San Diego, and Boston, Houston just isn’t commercializing technology at the same rate.

What solution would you propose that gets Houston’s technology out of the lab and into the clinic?

(By the way, if you intended your comments for Eric Berger, his blog is available here)

I’d hate for this to be one big propaganda act by some business majors to just make a quick buck. Don’t worry we’ll come up with something for you boys to do