Roger Stein: A bold new way to fund drug research

A bold new way to fund drug research

Believe it or not, about 20 years' worth of potentially life-saving drugs are sitting in labs right now, untested. Why? Because they can't get the funding to go to trials; the financial risk is too high. Roger Stein is a finance guy, and he thinks deeply about mitigating risk. He and some colleagues at MIT came up with a promising new financial model that could move hundreds of drugs into the testing pipeline.

Hundreds of potentially life-saving drugs are stalled in labs because the financial risk of testing them is too high. By viewing drug development as a portfolio of financial assets and pooling investments, a diversified fund could spread risk, attract new capital, and push more drugs into clinical trials. With over $100 trillion invested in fixed-income securities globally, the resources exist to fund this approach. Harnessing collective investment power could save millions of lives once lost to hesitant funding.