Biotechnology and new companies arising from academia

20 years ago, an academic biomedical scientist or clinician who set up a company would probably have been perceived by colleagues as “on the make” and rather unacademic—“not one of us”, in other words. Nowadays, academics who have started companies are commonplace, and in some universities the businessman-academic is becoming the norm, although still far more common in the USA than in Europe. At best, the opportunity to capitalise on a discovery has the potential to motivate research workers, provide greater funding for research, and ultimately create wealth. At worst, the spawning of a company from within academia has the potential to use public employees, space, and equipment for personal gain, and divert academics from the pursuit of profound scientific questions into more immediate product-driven research or even marketing dressed up as research. Here, I discuss some of the issues surrounding biotechnology and spin-off companies originating in academia.