I grew up watching Family Ties so I have to admit to a slight soft spot for Michael J. Fox, who was today’s keynote speaker. He has Parkinson’s disease and gave up acting to create his own foundation to fund Parkinson’s research.

He criticized both academia and industry for not going after the high-risk research questions and being too concerned with easy profits and publications. He urged biotech executives to work with him and other patient-centered foundations. For a former Hollywood star, he demonstrated a pretty good understanding of drug development and research. He was definitely passionate about the need to develop better drugs. He got a standing ovation.