With ImClone Systems' chief executive Sam Waksal under indictment for insider trading and fraud, the black cloud over corporate business ethics that first rose over Enron now hovers above the biotech industry. While Waksal may be an outlier, the problems at ImClone have prompted the industry to once again examine ethical standards. Perhaps more than any other industry, biotech is experienced in dealing with ethical issues, with managers constantly embroiled in hot-button debates over stem cell

© Ned Shaw, nedshaw.com Like hopeful young mothers, state and local governments in partnership with universities, foundations, and local industry are hovering over new life science incubators where they expect to nurture biotech startups. Business incubators have been around for more than 20 years, mainly to stimulate struggling urban and rural economies. In the 1990s information technology incubators became trendy with the rise of the Internet, but they quickly fell from favor during the

Photo: Courtesy of MMI INCUBATING SCIENCE: The Albe Centre in Livingston, Scottish scion of MMI. At the Bioscience Innovation Centre in Cambridge, researchers not only experiment with groundbreaking drug-discovery technologies, they also participate in a business experiment that investors hope will change the way scientists commercialize their products. For the most part, government or nonprofit groups subsidize biotech incubators in the hope that the incubator will jump-start companies

Continuing public concern over gene patenting and its impact on medical research and discovery has prompted several US and European initiatives challenging the power of patents. None pose an immediate threat to the biotechnology industry, but lawyers and industry advocates say a groundswell of political support for limits on patent protections, as has occurred in Europe, could eventually undermine biotech companies. "The mere discussion of this type of legislation—whether it goes anywher

The once white-hot investment climate for proteomics has cooled, sending companies scrambling to recast themselves. Biotech analysts and investors say interest in proteomics companies peaked about a year ago with a rash of them competing in the technology and database sectors. In Europe, proteomics companies have also experienced a downturn, with biotech stocks falling 40% from their peak in 2000. Developing a new generation of technology and digitally mapping the proteome was, relatively speaki

While scientists in the research and development organizations of pharmaceutical companies labor to discover life-saving drugs, their managers try to make this notoriously hit-or-miss process more efficient. At GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest drug company, executives are experimenting with a new formula they say combines the best of the company's massive size with the spirit of a smaller, entrepreneurial biotech firm. The Middlesex, UK-headquartered company created six research cent