Ringold talks about how the pharmaceutical industry is built on failure and inefficiency and has a small success rate. This recognition led to Surromed. The low success rate is driving the consolidation of companies, which is giving rise to mega players. Now a blockbuster product has to be a multibillion product. This can only change with a change in the processes it uses. New biotech companies are starving for funding and cash, he notes.

1. What is an Entrepreneur?
2. Importance of Passion
3. Being an Entrepreneur in Industry vs. Education: Team vs. Individual
4. Types of Company in Biotech
5. History: From Bayer to Affymax
6. Biotech: Collaboration vs. Competition in Developing Affymax
7. Pharmaceutical Companies: Challenges in Developing New Therapeutic Products
8. Funding Challenges in Today's Market
9. History of Maxygen
10. History of Surromed
11. Biggest Pharmaceutical Products in Industry Today
12. How to Operate in a Downturn Economy
13. When and How are Patents Important?
14. Change the Business Plan in Response to a Changing Environment

Gordon Ringold from Surromed lectures on Entrepreneurship for Stanford University students, February 26, 2003. Dr. Ringold was most recently CEO of the Glaxo-Wellcome Group's Affymax Research Institute, where he managed the development of novel technologies to accelerate the pace of drug discovery. He is a co-founder and director of Maxygen Corporation, a Managing Partner of Technogen Associates, L.P., a private investment firm, and has over fifteen years of experience managing the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals and novel, enabling life science technologies. In this Stanford lecture, he talks about funding challenges in today's market and how to operate in a downturn economy.

Course Details:
- Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lectures
- Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner (ecorner)

Original Course Name: Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lectures