Viewpoint

A year after Science|Business highlighted the hurdles that stand in the way of deploying personalised medicine there has been progress, even if some barriers remain in place

As the second tranche of projects in the €2 billion Innovative Medicines Initiative was announced this week, a quick stock take of progress to date hints at what this wide-ranging collaboration could deliver

The old principles of intellectual property regulation are strained in the Age of the Internet. Reform is needed, says Francis Gurry, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization

Entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders attending the third annual Science|Business Academic Enterprise Awards (ACES) conference earlier this month called on European politicians and universities to do more to support entrepreneurship on campus and help seed a new generation of world-class technology companies.

University technology transfer and commercialisation is a delicate balancing act, calling for scale and a global outlook on one hand, and intimate knowledge and continuous contact on the other, says Keith Robson, Chair of SETsquared.

Unusually, innovation is on the agenda at the meeting Feb. 4 of European leaders in Brussels. On the eve of this summit, a group of innovation leaders calls for a sweeping overhaul of the system.

Being first on the moon looks trifling next to all the things science is expected to do for us now

Europe’s biggest-ever private financing round by a biotech doesn’t mean the capital drought is over, says Martin Edwards of Novo Ventures.

Index Ventures raised $400 million dollars in its last fund, of which about half will be invested in life science start-ups. Senior partner, Francesco de Rubertis says personalised medicine will take a large share of this.