What is truth? For a life scientist in academia, the answer lies somewhere inside a ragged and incomplete sea of data. These data may or may not be “truths” that stand the test of time. The literature is, of course, littered with the corpses of debunked data that did not make the cut. If you’re an academic researcher who got the answer wrong, you might suffer an ignored or retracted paper, and possibly some personal embarrassment. In the very worst case, you might not be able to land that next job or grant.
But the stakes are much higher in biotech. A nascent company will assemble its portfolio of perceived truths, and with these, will try to convince venture capitalists to seed further research, often to the tune of millions of dollars. The lucky few companies that survive further financing rounds with their truths intact will eventually have to convince ...
