Books about Biotech from Amazon.com

Entrepreneur's Notebook propels you on a whirlwind tour of the start-up process. It is an invaluable reference for new and experienced entrepreneurs that includes chapters on a wide range of topics, from entrepreneurial team building to business plans to financing. This excellent book provides an incredible amount of practical information that will help you make smarter decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The author, Steven K. Gold, is an accomplished entrepreneur who has co-founded and led five early-stage ventures. As an investor and mentor, he also advises many entrepreneurs and young companies. He earned his B.S.E. in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.D. from Brown University Medical School..
Price: $9.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Why has the biotechnology industry failed to perform up to expectations—despite all its promise? In Science Business, Gary P. Pisano answers this question by providing an incisive critique of the industry. Pisano not only reveals the underlying causes of biotech’s problems; he offers the most sophisticated analysis yet on how the industry works. And he provides clear prescriptions for companies, investors, and policymakers seeking ways to improve the industry’s performance.

According to Pisano, the biotech industry’s problems stem from its special character as a science-based business. This character poses three unique business challenges: 1) how to finance highly risky investments under profound uncertainty and long time horizons for R&D, 2) how to learn rapidly enough to keep pace with advances in drug science knowledge, and 3) how to integrate capabilities across a broad spectrum of scientific and technological knowledge bases.

The key to fixing the industry? Business models, organizational structures, and financing arrangements that place greater emphasis on integration and long-term learning over shorter-term "monetization" of intellectual property. Pisano maintains that all industry players—biotech firms, investors, universities, pharmaceutical companies, government regulators—can play a role in righting the industry. The payoff? Valuable improvements in health care, and a shinier future for human well-being..
Price: $12.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Combining myth, biography,
and wit -- a highly original
depiction of cutting-edge
science -- told through the
scientists who are rewriting
life on earth

While the future of human existence is literally being forged by today's genetic scientists and biotechnology leaders, the media, policymakers, ethicists, and fellow scientists alike have not been adequately communicating the tremendous potential that is contained in these individuals' work. With the public only vaguely aware of what is really happening, a new coterie of geniuses, tinkerers, tycoons, and genetic soothsayers are -- for better or worse -- about to alter life on earth forever.

Now award-winning journalist David Ewing Duncan has written an insightful narrative about science and personality, delving into stem cell research, cloning, bioengineering, extending life span, and genetics by telling the stories of the characters at the fulcrum of the science. Calling to mind age-old stories and myths -- Prometheus, Faustus, Eve, and Frankenstein -- Duncan asks the question: Can we trust these scientists?

Duncan has spent the last three years reporting on and studying these masterminds, from the co-solver of the DNA structure James Watson to a man who is creating synthetic life, Craig Venter. The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with My DNA tells their stories, revealing their quirky, fascinating, and sometimes vaguely unsettling personas as a way to understand their science and the implications of their work.

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Price: $4.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The pharmaceutical industry is extremely complex, and so are the inner workings of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies operating within it. Even the most seasoned industry professionals may find it difficult to understand the activities of, and interdependencies among, all key functions within a pharmaceutical company. Yet this knowledge is crucial when the responsibilities for--or repercussions of--key initiatives ripple across an organization.

Understanding Pharma is a must-read for anyone in the pharmaceutical industry--those new to the industry, industry veterans, and those working in or serving the industry.

Gain an understanding of the inner workings of each functional area in the typical pharmaceutical company

Learn the interdependencies of each functional area and how they affect the company's strategic goals

Understand how each functional area impacts the company's financial success.

Topics covered in the book include:

The global scope of the pharmaceutical industry

Typical pharmaceutical company structure

Customer groups supply and demand drivers

Pharmaceutical product lifecycle

Drug Discovery

Drug Development

Business Development

Marketing

Sales

Managed Markets

Manufacturing

Distribution

Each function-specific chapter explains:

The role of that functional area in fulfilling the pharmaceutical company s mission

The impact of that functional area on company profitability and strategic vision

Key activities within that functional area

Understanding Pharma is an ideal resource for professionals in a wide variety of careers, including:

Sales

Marketing

Market Research

Medical Affairs

Business Development

Training

Contract Research

Medical Education

Advertising

Public Relations

Students preparing for careers in the pharmaceutical industry will also find it extremely effective in orienting them to their chosen field, and the industry as a whole.

Be sure your team has what it takes to succeed in this competitive environment. Understanding Pharma will provide the practical knowledge they need. Also be sure to check out the companion book, Lingua Pharma, the first comprehensive glossary of industry-related terms..
Price: $89.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For most people, the global war over genetically modified foods is a distant and confusing one. The battles are conducted in the mystifying language of genetics.

A handful of corporate "life science" giants, such as Monsanto, are pitted against a worldwide network of anticorporate ecowarriors like Greenpeace. And yet the possible benefits of biotech agriculture to our food supply are too vital to be left to either partisan.

The companies claim to be leading a new agricultural revolution that will save the world with crops modified to survive frost, drought, pests, and plague. The greens warn that "playing God" with plant genes is dangerous. It could create new allergies, upset ecosystems, destroy biodiversity, and produce uncontrollable mutations. Worst of all, the antibiotech forces say, a single food conglomerate could end up telling us what to eat.

In Food, Inc., acclaimed journalist Peter Pringle shows how both sides in this overheated conflict have made false promises, engaged in propaganda science, and indulged in fear-mongering. In this urgent dispatch, he suggests that a fertile partnership between consumers, corporations, scientists, and farmers could still allow the biotech harvest to reach its full potential in helping to overcome the problem of world hunger, providing nutritious food and keeping the environment healthy..
Price: $5.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A riveting tale of the battle over genetically engineered foods, and an inside look at a biotech food empire. Ultimately a story of idealism, and conflicting dreams about the shape of a better world. Softcover .
Price: $9.76 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book is the first complete guide to valuation in life sciences for industry  professionals, investors, and academics. Boris Bogdan and Ralph Villiger introduce the characteristics of drug and medical device development, explain how to translate these into the valuation, and provide valuable industry data. After guiding the reader through the theory of valuation, including discounted cash-flow and real options, the authors demonstrate how to value projects, patents, licences, firms and stocks on real-life examples, even treating complex licence and company structures. Special emphasis is put on the practicability of the proposed methods by including many hands-on examples, without compromising on realistic results. Ralph Villiger and Boris Bogdan have written what is sure to become the industry standard reference for valuation of pharmaceutical and biotechnology projects and companies. At a time when the healthcare industry is placing increasing emphasis on licensing and M&A as a core strategy this book provides a firm understanding of the way in which products and businesses can be valued at all stages of their development.

Dr. Martin Buckland, Chief Business Officer, Astex Therapeutics, Cambridge, UK

The book presents a number of innovative ideas, illustrated with practical examples that should improve decision-making in the drug development process, intellectual property evaluation, licensing and sublicensing. The authors make a persuasive case for the use of advanced techniques and the section on worked-examples should be particularly appealing to practitioners.

Dr. Martin Grossmann, Novartis Pharmaceuticals

There is no doubt that this book will become an essential reference tool for professionals in technology transfer, business developers and biotech companies, as well as the pharmaceutical industry and Life Science investors.

Jean-Pierre Saintouil, Director of Technology Transfer Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

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Price: $69.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"If ever there was need and opportunity for Christians to shape culture, it is now," write Charles W. Colson and Nigel M. de S. Cameron.

The contributors to "Human Dignity in the Biotech Century" make the case that biotechnology is the next front in the battles over ethics and public policy, and Christians need to bring their influence to bear on the debates. These twelve essays, contributed by scholars and leaders who are part of Colson’s Wilberforce Forum, alert readers to the ethical and legal challenges we face in the new genetics, involving embryo research, stem cell research, cloning, genetic engineering, gene therapy, pharmacogenomics, cybernetics, nanotechnology and abortion.

"We need to get a grip on biotechnology and the bioethical considerations that go along with it," Colson challenges. "It is time for people to get educated, to think about these profound moral questions that affect the future of the human race.".
Price: $10.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A positive, optimistic, and convincing case that the biotechnology revolution will improve our lives and the future of our children The 21st century will undoubtedly witness unprecedented advances in understanding the mechanisms of the human body and in developing biotechnology. With the mapping of the human genome, the pace of discovery is now on the fast track. By the middle of the century we can expect that the rapid progress in biology and biotechnology will utterly transform human life. What was once the stuff of science fiction may now be within reach in the not-too-distant future: 20-to-40-year leaps in average life spans, enhanced human bodies, drugs and therapies to boost memory and speed up mental processing, and a genetic science that allows parents to ensure that their children will have stronger immune systems, more athletic bodies, and cleverer brains. Even the prospect of human immortality beckons.

Such scenarios excite many people and frighten or appall many others. Already biotechnology opponents are organizing political movements aimed at restricting scientific research, banning the development and commercialization of various products and technologies, and limiting citizens’ access to the fruits of the biotech revolution.

In this forward-looking book Ronald Bailey, science writer for Reason magazine, argues that the coming biotechnology revolution, far from endangering human dignity, will liberate human beings to achieve their full potentials by enabling more of us to live flourishing lives free of disease, disability, and the threat of early death. Bailey covers the full range of the coming biotechnology breakthroughs, from stem-cell research to third-world farming, from brain-enhancing neuropharmaceuticals to designer babies. Against critics of these trends, who forecast the nightmare society of Huxley’s Brave New World, Bailey persuasively shows in lucid and well-argued prose that the health, safety, and ethical concerns raised by worried citizens and policymakers are misplaced.

Liberation Biology makes a positive, optimistic, and convincing case that the biotechnology revolution will improve our lives and the future of our children, while preserving and enhancing the natural environment..
Price: $8.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]