Roy Vagelos a highly regarded pharmaceutical executive who spent two decades at Merck including 10 years as CEO has often said that ”research remains my life blood ” and indeed he has stayed active in the industry since his retirement from Merck in 1994. For example he is chairman of the board of two small drug companies Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Theravance and in 2004 co-authored a book entitled Medicine Science and Merck. Vagelos recently spoke with Robbie Shell editorial director of Knowledge at Wharton and Steve Guglielmi Knowledge at Wharton senior editor about the future of the pharmaceutical industry including competition from generics the impact of outsourcing biotech alliances pricing strategies and the next big drug breakthroughs.