To date YC has not shown a good understanding of the life sciences. It's not just about a regulatory burden, but the premise of breaking away from academia, of somehow finding a magic bullet and commercializing it, and assuming that biology is somehow like software is flawed. Sure the barriers to entry may be lower, but most science is a slog. There are very few home runs. Next-gen sequencing was a huge breakthrough and happened very fast by life science standards. The drivers came both from academia and industry and by all means it worked really well and remains highly innovative.
I completely buy that a different model of funding will help and could be successful. I just don't have a good understanding of whether there is a good understanding of the real scientific challenges and the implications.
I completely buy that a different model of funding will help and could be successful. I just don't have a good understanding of whether there is a good understanding of the real scientific challenges and the implications.