Patrick Vallance is Britain's science minister. He was previously an executive at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he was responsible for the guillotining of the firm's neuroscience division in 2010—part of a global move in big pharma to back away from brain research, deemed too difficult and risky. He is now in charge of ensuring that biotech firms thrive and grow in Britain.
Gordon's first law: If a research project is not worth doing, it is not worth doing well.