[gumby]

The only way to get around these cultural/institutional barriers is to found your own business. I started a pharma company and ran it like a startup (bc it was a startup). Paid decent salaries, worked really hard (literally, one of our contractors complained, “you guys work so hard”). Exited before our phase I/II completed.

A parallel way is to start a company that only does one part, say a software based part. Pharma will pay more for tools that solve their problems than they would pay for a couple of FTEs to solve their problem directly. The problem is your customer may not know how to put your product to use, or even understand its value. So sales is no slam dunk.

I loved my time in the pharma business but was happy to go back to what’s called “tech.” Culturally the life sciences CES are full of some dreadful pathological practices, and I prefer the pathological practices I’m familiar with :-(.