مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد فرصت های بیوتکنولوژی – الزویر 2018

Strategies for biotechnology must take account of opportunities for research, innovation and business growth. At a regional level, public-private collaborations provide potential for such growth and the creation of centres of excellence. By considering recent progress in areas such as genomics, healthcare diagnostics, synthetic biology, gene editing and bio-digital technologies, opportunities for smart, strategic and specialised investment are discussed. These opportunities often involve convergent or disruptive technologies, combining for example elements of pharma-science, molecular biology, bioinformatics and novel device development to enhance biotechnology and the life sciences. Analytical applications use novel devices in mobile health, predictive diagnostics and stratified medicine. Synthetic biology provides opportunities for new product development and increased efficiency for existing processes. Successful centres of excellence should promote publicprivate business partnerships, clustering and global collaborations based on excellence, smart strategies and innovation if they are to remain sustainable in the longer term.

Introduction

The biotechnology sector operates on an increasingly global basis, with the 25 biggest drug and biotech companies coming from eight different countries (Morrison & Lhäteenmäki 2017; NASDAQ Biotech Index, 2018). The sector has however, undergone considerable consolidation, including the $130 Bn merger of Dow Chemical with Du Pont and Chem China’s bid of $43 Bn for Syngenta, leading to a smaller number of truly global players. Major revenue earners include Abvie’s Humira monoclonal antibody for arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease therapy ($15.9 Bn), Gilead’s Harvoni small molecule for hepatitis C antiviral therapy ($13.8 Bn) and Celgene’s Revlimid for multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma ($6.9 Bn; 1, illustrated in Fig. 1). Approximately 26% of revenue sales are currently spent on research and development, in what is increasingly an expensive escalating biotechnological arms race, with upwards of 40% of venture capital centred on just two areas: Boston Bay and San Francisco (Morrison & Lhäteenmäki, 2017). Amongst European companies, one of the biggest recent changes has seen Bayer bid $66 Bn for Monsanto, to create a global entity dedicated to innovation in healthcare, including pharmaceuticals, consumer & animal health and agriculture. Digital farming combining big data with the internet of things, is one example of how Bayer will meet the challenges posed by world population increasing to 10 Bn by 2050. Farmland per capita will decline by 17% and climate change is forecast to reduce yields by a further 17%. This means an effective 60% productivity increase will be necessary to meet the needs of 10 Bn global citizens (Gartland & Gartland 2016; Food & Agriculture Organisation, 2016). Sustainably producing more food with fewer inputs will require precision data on needs and opportunities for growers. Bayer hope to provide an improved quality of life by combining aspects of their current crop protection portfolio with seed, trait and climate change platforms from Monsanto (Bayer, 2017). At a national level, EU28’s largest biotechnology products pipeline comes from the UK, where €34.66 Bn was generated from pharma, medtech and biotechnology products in 2015 (PWC, 2017). This activity provides 482,000 UK jobs, €9.81 Bn tax take and equates to a Gross Value Added of €118,500 per employee, being the highest in Europe. What then are the areas of biotechnology where opportunities exist for smart, specialized strategies to emerge and be successful in research and innovation, including economic and future employment prospects?