An annoyed venture capitalist may not open the company's coffers to a hopeful inventor, and though many scientists bristle at the idea of perfecting a marketing message, a half dozen carefully chosen words can determine whether a researcher's dream evolves into a product that helps people or dissolves into a delusion.1 "The transition from discovery process to development process is sometimes a wasteland," says Christopher Yochim, associate director of global discovery alliances for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, Del. "This is an area where a lot of money will be spent in the coming years, to move those [drug] candidates into development."
| Courtesy of Brenda Gavin |
 Brenda Gavin |
Venture capitalists have invested $777 million in drug discovery since January 2001, or about $260 million per quarter, down from the startling $358 million per quarter invested in 2000 but up from the more moderate $144 per quarter in 1999, according to Venture ...
