WASHINGTON — Current and former government officials proffered a clear-eyed, and often depressing, take Tuesday on the state of clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry, and biotech investors coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The officials, including the Food and Drug Administration’s second-in-command Janet Woodcock, acknowledged the drug industry’s persistent lack of interest in collaborating on clinical trials, the ways hypercompetition pervades academic research and slows progress, and biotech investors taking the wrong lessons from pandemic.
The tenor Tuesday was a far cry from the optimism often shared during the heat of the pandemic, which saw vaccines and therapeutics developed at record rates thanks in large part to massive collaboration and investment between government and industry.
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