"If you had the opportunity to mentor someone who was building a biotechnology company, what is the most important thing you would say to them?" was the question we put to a select group of biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives, investment bankers, venture capitalists, consultants, lawyers, and technology transfer specialists for Nature Biotechnology's special supplement on bioentrepreneurship. We wanted a blueprint for building a successful biotechnology venture that would be useful to both the enterprising bench scientist and the successful company CEO.
The response to the concept for this supplement was overwhelming positive. "The critical problem biotechnology faces," said one author, "is that the next generation of bioentrepreneurs must learn from the mistakes of the past." Many authors said that one impediment to learning these lessons was that the stories behind many of the events that have shaped biotechnology's history are known only to those who directly participated in them. "Biotechnology's history is still an oral one," said one. "If you depend on faxed headlines and business articles, you are missing 90% of why the industry behaves the way it does." To ameliorate this situation, our authors took time out of their hectic schedules to describe for us what they see as the critical issues for bioentreprenuers.
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