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Friday, October 29, 2010

Empty Buildings

So up to 90 percent of medical science reports could be B.S. One of the consequences is of course that your doctor could be following a cargo cult science when he/she tells you to take your pills. But we like to look at the airport as well.

Here in Seattle we had a push to start up a biotech hub. We wanted to compete with Boston and North Carolina and San Diego and the bay area. We built expensive buildings with lots of lab space to accommodate that science that is 90% false. How did it pay off?

Empty promises bring empty buildings. Contrast our biotechnology investment with the investment in politicians. 3.7 billion! Giving politicians money produces desired results. Maybe you want the government to add an earmark to a bill that will provide you with the money you need to create a Laurance Welk museum. It's been done. You can't pay a politician to cure cancer. Nor can you expect a biotech to do it. It hasn't been done.

Imagine taking a walk today through the empty spaces available for biotech. The smell of new construction, the lights turned off, no people around, and you keep walking for miles. What happened? 1100 Eastlake was completed in early 2009 — "just around the time the world fell apart," Blume said. The world didn't just fall apart in 2009. Biotech has been falling apart since it began. The success of a few companies fooled investors into thinking easy money was to be made. But the data of failed companies as a direct result of bad science has escaped the wealthy. Their starting to come around to the truth. It's a cargo cult airport!

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