The experimental biologist and the medical scientist in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

When I was invited to speak to you today I hesitated before accepting. On the one hand this paper offered an ideal opportunity to present a balanced picture of research in the pharmaceutical industry. There is no denying the fact that experimental biologists and medical scientists in industry are familiar with life and work in the university department, because it is there that they received their training and embarked upon their careers. The same however, cannot be said for their colleagues in academic institutions who may be poorly informed, and perhaps sometimes even misinformed, about the true situation in the research-based pharmaceutical industry.

This article is based on a closing lecture given by Dr. B. Berde, Head of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Sandoz Ltd., by invitation of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Swiss Union of Societies for Experimental Biology, Basel, 14 March 1980.