With this very straightforward question, he launched into a series of probing questions intended to determine whether the Ph.D. scientist at the other side of this desk would stumble on the culture difference between academia and industry. The above scenario is repeated every day in some human resources office in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company.
Industry operates under a different set of rules from academia.
Sadly, those differences are largely ignored by the interviewing scientist. What a shock it can be to find out after a round of interviews that this isn't true. This is just one of the major differences between the work environment in academia and in the world of industry. Good science is being done on both sides. Whether you will be happy in a biotech or pharmaceutical company will depend on your comfort level with this difference and several other key cultural changes.