Is there a Future for Organic Chemists in the Pharmaceutical Industry outside China and India?

I have copy/pasted the headline for this post from the editorial in the most recent issue of Organic Process Research and Development. It's a good question that is being asked and I believe that the answer is YES. However, we really need to come up with something new to justify our existence. The Chinese and others are just as good as us at doing Med Chem SAR working their way through methyl, ethyl, propyl, futile...but they can do the work at a much lower cost. The same thing that happened to the textile industry sometime last century is happening to the pharmaceutical industry. The design is made in the western world but the actual product is manufactured at some cheap site in Asia. The way forward is to invent new ingenious stuff. Start biotech companies with crazy, innovative new technologies, start working at the biology/chemistry interface modifying proteins; oligonucleosides etc. in predictable ways for use a medicinal agents and so on. Ultimately this development is a good thing. It is forcing us to think and evolve. In the end humanity will benefit from some great new discoveries and technologies that will spring from the effort we put into this. So get up and go invent something brilliant that will make the world a better place. D!

If it works don't mess with it!

I'm currently in Brussels vistiting a collaborator. The research groups lab is absolutely fascinating and contains several old school mechanical contraptions that do a great job.
For your glassware drying pleasures:
For melting point determination (not sure how useful this device is but its looks cool):
It's not always necessary to upgrade to an expensive model with digitals controls to achieve the goal. Check out this solid phase synthesis shaker and the fantastic sound it makes - music to my ears. D!