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Lawyer Richard Gold argues that superfluous patents stifle innovation. Industry should adopt new models, he says, in which knowledge is viewed as a club good.

Meet the man behind Pfizer's recent decision to bet its entire R&D effort on the biotech model.

One of the most pioneering protein engineers of his generation is also a serial entrepreneur with a flair for spotting new business opportunities.

Mark Roth's pioneering work on hydrogen sulfide has spawned Ikaria, a company exploring the molecule's potential to modulate the body's metabolism and perhaps one day turn hibernation into profitable clinical applications.

Alan Alda is not only a beloved actor, producer, writer and activist, but also a skilled science communicator. Those aiming to talk effectively to the public about biotech research would do well to follow his lead.

In under three years, Deborah Dunsire transformed Millennium Pharmaceuticals from an unprofitable company to Takeda's oncology centerpiece. What's next?

A patent attorney relies on guts, smarts and 'deep throats' to take on what he considers a broken patent system.

Public distaste for genetically modified crops shows little sign of abating. Tony Conner thinks he's found a solution: tailor crops to be more palatable to the public.

Sidney Wolfe has been criticized as an anti-pharma zealot and thorn in the side of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But his critiques and outspoken views increasingly resonate with a US public that is losing trust in the drug industry.

Charismatic FasterCures president Greg Simon is on a mission to galvanize US biomedical research—and he's starting by changing attitudes to the sharing of donated patient materials.

Almost 15 years after Ian Frazer began the work that created the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), the 54-year-old immunologist is using his newfound prominence to educate others about treating HPV and to pass along the lessons he's learned about drug development.

A self-made billionaire and serial entrepreneur of numerous medical device and biotech ventures, Mann has been exemplary in his philanthropy. This has not meant that his Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering (AMFBE) has been without its critics.

The faculty director of the newly established bioethics center at Harvard Law School believes that law is the framework for looking at all the issues relevant to the delivery of healthcare, from malpractice to insurance to patents.

The new head of Glaxo Wellcome's genetic directorate brings a strong vision of the role of disease genetics in molecular medicine.