"The choice to invest in vaccines rather than in weapons; in treatments for rare diseases rather than in speculative consumer products; in long-term infrastructure rather than in short-term optics-these are not technical decisions. They are moral decisions . . ."
Biotech in the Balance: Saving a Strategic Industry in the Age of Distrust by Dr. Jeremy M. Levin shows why the next lifesaving medicines may not arrive on time, and what we can do about that tin a period of political change. This is not a technical book-it is a bedside-to-boardroom story, told from inside the system, with a clear map of what has to change so that lifesaving medicines keep arriving when people need them. When funding for research and development is politicized, trust in science is eroded, and the foundation of life-saving biotechnology cracks. As science is increasingly treated as a partisan symbol rather than a shared foundation for health, patients and families bear the consequences.
The author's career began as a scientist working on the shape of DNA molecules and then as a physician in university hospitals in London, Cape Town, and Geneva. As a doctor, he witnessed some patients being saved by medicines that arrived just in time, while others were not so lucky. That experience prompted a simple idea: drug discovery and development is not an abstract business, but is rather a dynamic coalition of scientists, governments, businesses, and most importantly, patients. To patients and their families, the profitability of therapy, and the strategy by which it is developed, are not important. What matters is whether the therapy will work and how quickly any results will be seen, balanced by the potential risks associated with treatment or no treatment at all.
Dr. Levin keeps patients uppermost in his discussions of politics, markets, supply chains, and governance, and how all of these elements affect biotechnological advancement. This book is written from the vantage point of a scientist/physician in the struggle to create a resilient, global biotechnology industry for the benefit of patients, investors, biotech and pharma boards, senior executives, scientists, medical students, and regulators. The author provides a clarion call to action and commitment for the preservation of biotechnology as a strategic asset.
