Summary
The life science industry Sector: how much momentum does it have and what is its future?
Joyce Tait
Director of the ESRC’s Innogen Centre
University of Edinburgh
This talk will be based on a scenario report for the OECD International Futures Programme that considered the pathways that health biotechnologies could follow, the future trajectory of the bio-economy in the context of human health and the likely societal, economic and policy impacts of these projected outcomes to 2030.
Our projections were based on research extending since the 1980s, first on GM
crops and then on health-related technologies. We chose as a starting point for
our scenario a health care system that, from the perspective of potential
impacts of biotechnology,
has been mainly under the influence of the innovation model of the multinational
drug companies. To date the scope and inventiveness of this model has been
constrained by the expensive and lengthy regulatory systems that act as a
barrier to entry for small highly innovative companies that could challenge the
industry status quo. Our scenario considers what could happen if we can reform
the regulatory system, developing smarter regulation to match the smarter
technology emerging from universities and companies in the 21st Century.
