Medical Research Feared To Be Negatively Affected By Economic Downturn
by bethany on Oct.27, 2008, under general research
According to professor David Wield, director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Innogen Centre, venture capital investment is likely to fall short of the £32-billion total it received in 2007.
“[Venture capital] is often the main source of funding in the early stages of development and, without this, biotech firms will struggle to get their projects off the ground,” he says.
“This year started well but in recent months it has started drying up. It is a real worry.”
He added: “Like many other sectors, the pharmaceutical industry has had tough times recently - there is seemingly no way to speed up and improve the drug discovery pipeline, and heavily increased R&D has not increased the number of new drugs.
“As a result, big companies have been laying off staff and closing down research units.”
