Spe­cial re­port 2022: Meet 20 women blaz­ing trails in bio­phar­ma R&D

When you run a spe­cial re­port for a fourth year, it can start feel­ing a lit­tle bit like a rit­u­al. You go through the mo­tions — in our case open­ing up nom­i­na­tions for top women in bio­phar­ma R&D and re­view­ing more than 500 en­tries — you make your choic­es of in­clu­sion and ex­clu­sion. You host a cer­e­mo­ny.

But then things hap­pen that re­mind you why you do it in the first place. Per­haps a Supreme Court rules to over­turn the con­sti­tu­tion­al right to abor­tion and a group of women biotech lead­ers makes it clear they strong­ly dis­sent; per­haps new da­ta on gen­der di­ver­si­ty in the in­dus­try come out that look all too sim­i­lar to the old ones, sug­gest­ing women are still dra­mat­i­cal­ly un­der­rep­re­sent­ed at the top; per­haps protests and con­flicts around the world put in stark terms the strug­gles that many women still face in earn­ing the most ba­sic recog­ni­tion.

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