When people in the biopharmaceutical world speak of the valley of death, they’re not talking about a geographic hot spot where a lethal disease has infected a large number of people. Rather, the valley of death is where scientists in a research program have spent the last of their grant money, or a young biotech company has burned through its preliminary financing, and, though a program may still be promising, potential funders decide that they don’t want to risk the costs of taking it to the next level, and it dies. Currently, the valley of death, and similar financial constraints, are hampering vaccine development, which health officials are counting on to release us from the scourge of covid–19 and, perhaps even more important, from future pandemics that the novel coronavirus portends. (For more information on this topic please enter the buttons below)
In the Press