We may well be on the cusp of extraordinary medical advances. The foundations of transforming science appear to be in place after long years of experimentation. This applies in genomics, in gene therapies, in immunology and in the application of data to our health.
But if we are to accomplish this great task it will be no thanks to the major pharmaceutical companies, which have – to the cheering of fund managers – abandoned clinical ambition for me-too drugs and billions in marketing expenses.
As an erstwhile leader of Novartis proclaimed, his task was to sell drugs like sugar-filled soft drinks. Sadly, this is a sphere in which Britain can claim to be a world leader.
Britain is equally the master of failing to build new enterprises of global scale despite admirable scientific and entrepreneurial resources. This may be natural enough: if finance has evolved in a harmful direction, those cities and countries most devoted to finance are likely to feel the repercussions most severely.
As London offers a large stock of risk-averse asset managers, boasts a cornucopia of hedge funds and harbours a myriad of overly influential investment banks, bad outcomes are almost inevitable.
Last year’s takeover of Arm Holdings, the computer chip designer, by SoftBank of Japan demonstrates this Achilles’ heel. Arm had the chance to become a global technology giant.
To do so it needed the willingness to invest at the cost of immediate profits, managers prepared to dream rather than calculate, and supportive shareholders to back this vision.
We failed on all accounts. But who cares if the immediate uplift to performance is enough for a bonus?
James Anderson is co-manager of the Scottish Mortgage investment trust