[analog31]

It's not for lack of trying. People are definitely trying to find better ways of finding stronger candidates earlier. People are trying to gain a more precise understanding of disease mechanisms.

There are breakthroughs that I could have never imagined such as mRNA vaccines.

[calf]

I would have to reread the piece carefully but I don't think "lack of trying by Biopharma" is consistent with the author's main argument. Because he is still being somewhat critical of the way it is currently done (why he cites the other industries). I simply disagree with his final sentence since it requires a different set of essay arguments, and also is subjective in the way say a political centrist might say "there is no alternative to fossil fuels" etc.

[asdff]

Most other industries barely innovate. Most industries are just buying off the shelf components and putting them together into larger widgets. Cars, computers, airplanes, that's the business. The components might get more efficient or performant but they generally do the thing they always did. If you squint it is basically the same car/plane/laptop as x years ago. They worked out the optimal car/plane/laptop shape a while ago and now everything sold is exactly that shape and will be for probably the rest of both of our lives and then some, in those industries.

Life science on the other hand is actually on a bleeding edge. Something actually revolutionary might emerge tomorrow after a grad student has an acid trip tonight.

[analog31]

Indeed, I work in one of those businesses that seems to barely innovate. Many of our "new" products are mainly necessitated by obsolescence of components and changing applications. As I explain to people: The laws of physics don't change, at least as they affect our technology. For instance the earliest CCD and the latest CMOS image sensor share a lot of the same basic physics, and are made from the same chemical element.

In those industries, a person who deeply understands the theory behind the technology is assured of some job security. That's my job.

One area that has experienced more rapid innovation is software. And maybe it's not quite at the failure rate of drug development, but I think it's noticeably higher than for most "hardware" projects.