[washingtonismoney]

---

---

Unlike some speculation here, it did not come out on a Friday afternoon in July and it was not a whitewash.

That was my speculation. And no, it didn't come out on a Friday, and it wasn't a whitewash. But it was terse, and there was no contact person (which discourages further interaction by the press). I doubt Ms. Lam will be made available for interviews or e-mailed questions. And given her background, one wouldn't expect it.

Some differences of opinion there. The Daily reports the lack of anonymity discouraged some people from coming forward. A Stanford source is quoted by name confirming no anonymity, and outside named sources confirm this is somewhat unusual for reports of this type. The Daily seems to believe this is why the most explosive charge in Baker's reporting -- namely that MTL personally covered up misconduct while at Genentech -- did not surface in the Stanford report. It certainly makes the report's claim that there was "no evidence" of personal misconduct disingenuous at best. 

In any case, while MTL has suffered a personal embarassment in stepping down, I do note some venture capitalist types defending him. Given the success of one Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist in later running a drug discovery program at a major biopharma firm, I suspect he'll have some suitors after a suitable cooling-off period.

[washingtonismoney]

---

---

Unlike some speculation here, it did not come out on a Friday afternoon in July and it was not a whitewash.

That was my speculation. And no, it didn't come out on a Friday, and it wasn't a whitewash. But it was terse, and there was no contact person (which discourages further interaction by the press). I doubt Ms. Lam will be made available for interviews or e-mailed questions. And given her background, one wouldn't expect it.

Some differences of opinion there. The Daily reports the lack of anonymity discouraged some people from coming forward. A Stanford source is quoted by name confirming no anonymity, and outside named sources confirm this is somewhat unusual for reports of this type. The Daily seems to believe this is why the most explosive charge in Baker's reporting -- namely that MTL personally covered up misconduct while at Genentech -- did not surface in the Stanford report. It certainly makes the report's claim that there was "no evidence" of personal misconduct disingenuous at best. 

In any case, while MTL has suffered a personal embarassment in stepping down, I do note some venture capitalist types defending him. Given the success of one Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist in later running a drug discovery program at a major biopharma firm, I suspect he'll have some suitors after a suitable cooling-off period.