“The bio-technology boom started in earnest around 2002 (think the anthrax scare just after 9/11) and lasted until about 2005. The government pour HUGE amounts of money into the area, then asked for the results and found none. The academics and government labs were like, “What? You wanted products? We don’t do products!” After that, the industry imploded.”
I agree with the general premise of your comment, but would point out that pouring money into big pharma would likely have the same consequences. It is very difficult to develop viable therapeutics, which is why they wind up often being so expensive (until they are off patent). I think one of the big problems is that the people giving out money get suckered by hype too often (this includes venture capitalists as well as government funding agencies). True science doesn't need hype. Science has gone Hollywood to a great degree, and this has hurt it immensely.
I agree. Big Pharma has always presented a problem for me with respect to hiring. I have chemist that develop coatings and other materials development research related efforts of the organic chemistry flavor, but not related to drugs or delivery systems. The issue is that Big Pharma pays well, but is often a very volatile career path. Lots of up swings and many many layoffs. So my folks always want the big salaries afforded by Big Pharma (up to 30% more due to increased risk), but they don't understand why their friends who work for BigPharma are the first laid off.