Biotech, Obamacare and Why Drug Costs Are Really Rising

What industry would not support a law that fines people who don’t buy its products and that provides taxpayer subsidies to ensure that it doesn’t suffer financially if profits fall?

by Patrick Cox
March 10, 2016

I’ve written a lot about the convergence of IT and biotech. Instead of repeating myself, I’ll refer you to a new book by Freeman Dyson, who spent most of his life as professor of physics at Princeton’s legendary Institute for Advanced Study. Dyson, who personally knew most of the giants of 20^th-century science, has long maintained that the most important effect of computer technologies is the acceleration of biotechnology. He further develops that theme in Dreams of Earth and Sky, which I’ve just downloaded to my phone.

That biotech acceleration is clearly underway, though it may not be evident to those whose only gauge is popular media. Much of the progress has come from the creation of more powerful and inexpensive analytical tools such as genome sequencers and molecular analyzers. In some cases, however, the progress is taking place entirely inside computers.

Precise models of existing and theoretical molecules can be tested in virtual-reality simulations …