Lega­cies: 60 bio­phar­ma pi­o­neers over 60 who helped birth a tech rev­o­lu­tion in the mak­ing

Over the last cou­ple of months, we’ve lost two of the most promi­nent peo­ple in bio­phar­ma. José Basel­ga and John Mar­tin achieved won­der­ful things in their life­times, and rich­ly de­served the many trib­utes of­fered af­ter they ex­it­ed from life far too ear­ly.

Their ca­reers spanned the com­ing-of-age of biotech and drug hunt­ing. And their dis­cov­er­ies and com­pa­ny-build­ing ef­forts trans­formed ther­a­peu­tic are­nas, saved lives and re­stored hope, cre­at­ing the very foun­da­tion of an in­dus­try that promis­es to cre­ate the next great tech rev­o­lu­tion of mankind. They may not have been per­fect, but they led by ex­am­ple, every day.

But there’s a whole gen­er­a­tion of liv­ing pi­o­neers who have been break­ing new paths in R&D for decades. And we’re not go­ing to wait to rec­og­nize at least a group of stand­outs who have earned recog­ni­tion for a life­time’s de­vo­tion to the field. What fol­lows is not in­tend­ed to be a com­pre­hen­sive overview of every­one over the age of 60 who de­serves recog­ni­tion for what they’ve done in their life­times — their lega­cies. That’s a very big group. But they do rep­re­sent a gen­er­a­tion of the best and bright­est who have giv­en it their best shot, and still get up every day to con­tin­ue the fight.

This is our tip of the hat for what they’ve done. And what they promise to do.

— John Car­roll, 64
High­lights: Jour­ney­man writer, ed­i­tor and founder, End­points News

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