Pundits have been weighing in on Big Pharma's innovation drought for years, but recently Silicon Valley gurus like Intel's Andy Grove and Microsoft's Bill Gates have gotten into the act.
But strategies that work in Silicon Valley don't always apply to fields like biotechnology, where the scientific and regulatory challenges are very different.
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How the U.S. can sharpen its innovative edge.

In California, a state with a jobs problem, raising taxes is a sure way to make things worse. Yet this is just what some of the well-heeled — and supposedly wise — want voters to do.

To be legally eligible to file for bankruptcy, municipalities must be insolvent, have made a good-faith attempt to negotiate a settlement with their creditors and be willing to devise a plan to resolve their debts.

In a meeting with President Obama, Steve Jobs attacked America's education system, saying that it was hopelessly antiquated and crippled by union work rules. All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive, tailored to each student and providing feedback in real time, he argued.

In Rhode Island, liberals take the lead on pension reform.

We need a tax code that encourages investment, not penalizes it.

Employers in 20 states will have to shell out more in taxes next year as a penalty for the states not paying back federal loans that kept unemployment programs afloat during the recession. 

Modest, thoughtful, and fair adjustments to pension plans have a role to play in helping states find their way to fiscal solvency.

President Obama is being accused of playing political games in delaying the construction of a major new oil pipeline across U.S. soil. He should take this as an opportunity to prove that he cares more about the economy than about appearances.

Dependence on foreign energy is a bogus worry.

Cities and states across the country are using money designated for specific purposes—such as fixing roads or sewers—in order to fill financial holes elsewhere, according to public officials and records. The moves are exposing municipalities to controversy, as federal regulators and local auditors are more heavily scrutinizing their finances to protect bond buyers and taxpayers.

Municipal bankruptcies remain extremely rare, and each  case can be viewed as unique, a one-off.Viewed another way, though, they show how the downturn has left the nation’s most distressed cities with few options for papering over huge problems, and left some desperate elected officials placing their hopes in bankruptcy judges.

Rhode Island's debts have been woefully underestimated, with alarming consequences for cities across the US.

It’s important to remember that the official poverty rate came about largely by happenstance and was not the result of a carefully thought through analysis.

Battles between politicians and public-employee unions are far from over. A prolonged period of slow economic growth, which the nation now seems likely to experience, will depress states’ tax revenues. Simultaneously, the cost of government employees’ pension and health-care benefits will continue to rise. Great fiscal strain will result.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is in deep trouble. After tripling the size of its insurance to $1 trillion in the past four years, it’s now balancing an extremely leveraged portfolio with a dangerously small cash cushion. Unless the economy makes a swift recovery, my research shows that FHA will need a massive taxpayer bailout—between $50 and $100 billion. If the economy turns down for any reason, even more... More

A Harris Interactive poll found that 62 percent of Americans, and a remarkable 47 percent of respondents from union households, believe that union members don't get their dues' worth from their unions. One reason, clearly, for the dissatisfaction is the unions' expensive investment in political campaigns. In the Harris poll, 60 percent of those in union households said that labor groups were too involved... More

In some senses, Vietnam has emerged as the un-China, a large, fast-growing country that provides an alternative for American companies seeking to tap the dynamism of East Asia but without enhancing the power of a potentially devastating global competitor. With 86 million people, Vietnam may not offer as large a market, but it has strong historical, cultural, and strategic reasons to lean towards America.

Biopharmaceuticals are second only to aerospace products as the nation's leading export. And new therapies for everything from cancer to depression enable Americans (and people all over the world) to live longer, more productive lives. Unfortunately, future American leadership in drugs and medical devices is far from guaranteed.

No one said that it would be easy to take on public-sector unions; nor are pensions the sole cause of state and local financial distress. The Democratic governors who have acted, even tentatively, deserve credit. But the problem is so big that they will eventually have to do more.

Mass retirement will transform America, yes; and for some people, the transformation may be unpleasant. But it need not drag the nation under.

The business cycle matters when assessing the cost of new regulations.

Venture capital investment in the most innovative life sciences sectors has been declining due, in large part, to a complex web of regulatory challenges and competition for investment from other sectors with more predictable regulatory prospects (and reliable returns on that initial investment).

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Instead of handing out loans to companies like Solyndra, the government should offer prizes for actual results.

By putting a bit more cash in consumers’ pockets, the tax cuts in the stimulus package may have induced a bit more car- and home-buying, but the next Steve Jobs is not being held back by too little domestic consumer spending. Tax credits for home buyers and the infamous program Cash for Clunkers encourage spending on old industries, not the development of the new products that are likelier to bring America jobs and... More

NGDP stands for nominal gross domestic product and the idea is to have central banks such as the Bank of Canada and the U.S. federal reserve target nominal GDP growth in setting monetary policy. The Bank of Canada already targets inflation. The idea is that by targeting nominal GDP, central banks can help national economies achieve better growth and generate more jobs.

Free markets, not China, could help the eurozone.