Q: how do you turn $43M into $10M

A: start a retail personal genomics company.

Saw this (Life Technologies Buys Navigenics in New Gene Diagnostics Strategy

http://pocket.co/sMzhY) story today, and while I have no idea of Navigenics really sold for $10M, I would bet a large amount that they sold for less than the $43M invested in Navigenics. The problem, as I see it, wasn't Navigenics' technology, but rather their business strategy to focus on retail genomics. You'd think that investors like Kleiner would know how expensive and difficult attracting consumers is, but their Internet bias drives them towards great tech, not great businesses.

VRTX: "Oopsie!"

Uh-oh. VRTX's recent CF data (previously covered here) isn't as positive as the company announced three weeks ago. VRTX stock lost $1.5B in value as a result, but that's only half the story, as VRTX is going to be sued out the wazoo by shareholders who bought this month and aren't in the money.

The consequence for poor reporting of results has been set in the finance industry - if you mis-report your quarterly or annual financials or otherwise deceive the shareholders, someone (the CFO) gets booted. It's a bit different with scientific data as in this case, but at a minimum, I'd like to see Vertex's Chairman/CEO/President Jeff Leiden relinquish his Chairman and/or his President title - this episode suggests that more oversight is needed up there in Cambridge, MA.