the biotech age

[...]... The Coming Biotech Age are worthy of note In the latter, three chapters were devoted to the new economic laws of biotech Much of the underlying economic theory and jargon seems unnecessary at this juncture In The Biotech Age, a single chapter allows the new laws of bioeconomics to stand on their own without endless technical rationale Perhaps the most significant change in the biotech industry is the. .. discussion on a global basis The stakes are too high to leave to the media or even the politicians As I argued in The Coming Biotech Age, when the Biotech Age reaches its own mature phase (which I predict will occur about 30 years from now), its economic and social impact will have been greater than the car or the computer chip; in fact, greater than the two combined! The Biotech Age, which just arrived,... familiar with these issues however, because of what’s at stake for the world and for themselves and their families As I argue in the book, all people in the world will soon begin to make judgments about their genes and their lives Their work and their play will never be the same The two expanded chapters focus on two battlefronts of the war on genes—agriculture and medicine At this point there seems... recognize the importance of this debate—it is central to the growth of the industry—I will leave this subject largely to others more knowledgeable and capable of discussing its many ramifications This book is about the economics of biotech I trust my meager offering on the ethical issues will shed some light on the importance of the debate, but I will leave it to others to plumb their depth I encourage readers... makes many assertions about the future The most important is that we are at the end of the Information Age and about to embark on a new economic and technological period, the Age of Bioterials The Bioterials Century 3 Cells Trump Electrons The economy and societal issues of the twenty-first century will be dominated by biology and the new materials sciences rather than by the chemistry and physics that... suggested that the industry had matured, that the Information Age was drawing to a close, and that information technology would no longer be the engine of the economy, I was surprised by the timing and magnitude of the meltdown Although biotech stocks fell sharply as the entire market retrenched, biotech is still seen by almost everyone as the industry with a future, while the world will never be the same... Now Stalling Progress During the writing of The Coming Biotech Age, it was apparent that there were problems developing in the patenting of bio inventions Since then those problems have emerged full blown, and they may seriously retard the commercial development of the industry Likewise, just a few years ago the shortening of the approval cycle for FDA-approved drugs and the harmonization of approvals... overnight Of the more than 1000 changes that have been made to this book, a dozen are of great significance I list them here in brief form to demonstrate the immense penetration that biotech has made in the economy and the public conscious The Techs Crashed, While the Bios Boomed The dot.com crash and information technology sector economic downturn occurred just months after The Coming Biotech Age was published... defining the new technological era They are the new engine of the economy We are about to “flip” from the Information Age, which lasted only 50 to 60 years, to the Bioterials Age, projected to last only about half that time Figure 1-3 portrays the various economic eras The horizontal axis outlines the major technologies—agrarian, industrial, information, and now bioterials—and approximately when they began... expectancy] Importantly, the technologies have their greatest impact and are at their maximum power in the late stages of their growth phase and into their mature phase Thus, in this analysis, the major technology “set” is taken to be the engine of the economy and a force for global economic integration While it is quite clear that information technologies have been the major economic engine of the past 5 decades, . fact. The first and perhaps most noticeable difference between these two books is the “slightly” different title. The Coming Biotech Age has become, more simply, The Biotech Age. At the close of the. World of Business (1999) The Coming Biotech Age: The Business of Bio-Materials (2000) 10202_Oliver_fm_f.qxd 2/27/03 2:05 PM Page ii The Biotech Age The Business of Biotech and How to Profit from It Richard. for themselves and their families. As I argue in the book, all people in the world will soon begin to make judgments about their genes and their lives. Their work and their play will never be the