The Human Face Of Pharma

Even as the pharmaceutical industry is buffeted about by poor productivity, a skeptical public, and impatient investors, lives continue to depend on it in big and small ways, urgently or over time. People who depend on drugs for life itself, or whose loved ones are deathly sick, or whose livelihoods depend on the industry have a unique view of where the industry should go.

In this special Web-only feature, C&EN presents interviews with 17 individuals who have vastly varying points of view about the future of the pharmaceutical industry. They range from chemical scientists working in the industry to pharma bloggers to a soon-to-be graduate of medical school to patient advocates to teenagers with cancer.

The interviews poignantly reveal how the future of pharma is deeply personal to many people, including those who told C&EN what they hope—and sometimes what they dread—the future will hold for pharma. There is optimism, albeit tempered with stark reality, for many. For all, there is determination. These profiles aim to put a human face on pharma for C&EN's special issue of June 19, 2006, on the future of the pharmaceutical industry.