https://medium.com/@nbhorwitz/how-to-learn-biotech-c59c6ed7a812
I am increasingly asked what I read to learn and stay up-to-date on biotech. It turns out a screenshot of my bookmarks is not the most helpful response.
This is a roundup of useful sources in biotech, pharma, and healthcare.
My list excludes many great ways to learn: a scientific degree (and textbooks), conferences, talking with people (from professors to executives), and actually working in the space. However, it’s a near-comprehensive list of materials that you can access at any time, from anywhere in the world, mostly for free.
If I’ve missed a good source, or you’d just like to connect, feel free to email me.
PubMed is the bread-and-butter of biotech knowledge. If you feel daunted by the sheer volume of content, here’s PubMed’s real-time list of trending papers. Each week, I skim abstracts from the top 100 and read several in more depth.
bioRxiv and medRxiv are now the true cutting edge for new data: the latest results increasingly appear in preprints months before formal publication. I’m also signed up for free updates from Nature, Science, Cell, PNAS and NEJM.
Sci-Hub is a pirate website that instantly retrieves almost any scientific paper as a free PDF—and you shouldn’t use it because if you do Elsevier may sue me in its fight to keep taxpayer-funded science from being taxpayer-accessible.
The FDA provides extensive documentation on clinical and preclinical trials, approved drugs and medical devices, new regulations and incentives, as well as industry reports, advisory committees briefs, and open-source datasets.
The CFR is the code of federal regulations. Title 21, Chapter 1 covers pharma. It’s worth reading at least once in your life. As Thomas Cromwell said of the Tyndale Bible in Wolf Hall: “You read it, you’ll be surprised what’s not in it.”
The USPTO publishes patents 18 months after the initial IP filing date. Most are tedious to read, but it’s one of the best ways to follow emerging biotech. Google Patents provides the best tools to find and track relevant patents.
ClinicalTrials.gov is the best database of both active and completed, publicly- or privately-funded clinical trials in the world. The Clinical Trials Register is the European equivalent and the WHO maintains its own additional registry.
The SEC requires public companies to disclose regular reports on the state of their business—from S-1s filed by startups nearing IPO to 10-Ks/10-Qs/8-Ks filed by established corporations—all searchable in the free EDGAR database.
GovTrack is a topic-agnostic tool for tracking federal legislation, which I’ve customized to specifically follow congressional actions related to biopharma and healthcare. Watch how bills evolve as they move towards a vote.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center is a reliable public-private partnership between the state of Massachusetts and the industry, with a range of useful resources—especially for early-stage companies based in the commonwealth.