Cornell Business

What saves lives and has jobs?  The healthcare industry!  On February 28^th, industry executives spoke at the Inaugural Healthcare & Biotechnology Club Symposium to provide the Cornell community with insights on topics ranging from drug discovery to managed care.  The theme, "The Genomic Revolution:  Changing the Face of the Healthcare Industry," was appropriately timed to commemorate the Nobel Prize winning discovery of DNA's double helix structure.  The event kicked off with Dr. Ed Scolnick, who served as President of Merck Research Laboratories for over 20 years, during which he oversaw the development of more pharmaceuticals than any person in history.  Dr. Scolnick provided insights into how the sequence of the human genome will be leveraged to usher in a new era of drugs. 

However, Merck and other big pharma companies can't do it alone.  They need the expertise of entrepreneurs such as Colin Hill, a Cornell alum who's Gene Network Sciences (GNS) was the first portfolio company of the Johnson School's Big Red Venture Capital Fund.  Colin, a physicist by training and now CEO of GNS, explained how his firm's computer models of living cells are helping big pharma identify the molecular causes of diseases.  Another Ithaca local, Tom Kurz, COO of Advion BioSciences, dazzled the audience with a presentation on the next frontier in life science research: proteomics.

Who is going to pay for this next generation of drugs?  Chuck Larsen, Director of Benefits for CIGNA Healthcare, was here to explain.  Things heated up, however, when the Q&A session began and the audience grilled Chuck on how a person's genomic information might be used to determine the cost of their benefits.  Will people with high risks for certain diseases be able to afford healthcare?  Chuck kept his cool and, while admitting that such decisions were beyond the scope of his responsibilities, he noted that nearly all of us have genetic dispositions for some diseases.  A person's information, therefore, will help to provide people with a higher standard of care, not to prevent access to care.  After all, CIGNA is in the business of caring (and a proud sponsor of the symposium, along with Merck & Pfizer).  President and CEO of Exelixis, George Scangos, closed the event.  His presentation covered a spectrum of issues faced by his company, including raising start-up capital, forming alliances, and the drug discovery process.

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