Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/2624
AI BIO ENHANCED NANO NEURO HUMOR FOREVER YOUNG 20 FALL 2009 BIO T his past May, I joined some 14,000 of my closest friends at the international biotechnology conference, BIO 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia. The gossip started immediately: What happened to the other 6,000 of us that came last year? Is biotech in trouble? Well, no one's surprised that anything is in trouble these days — can you spell "economic meltdown?" Still, the business of biotech is a different beast. Normally, science takes time — a painstakingly long, meandering drunkard's walk occasionally revealing an amazing discovery — while it continues along its way. The discovery must then be followed by an intense, directed effort to convert that science into useful, reproducible technology, and even beyond that to proven effectiveness, safety, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution, and then, only at the very end of the line, to humans. Somehow, with modern biotechnology, the total timeframe became shortened. The technology phase could overlap with the scientific discovery phase, and in a comparative instant, deliver across global markets. While $1 billion+ and a decade or so of effort to produce a blockbuster may sound ominous to the average person, it's actually affordable in today's money. (Or, at least, in yesterday's money.) But when the money goes away, what happens to the momentum we've come to expect from biotech? What about all the almost-there technologies we hope will cure cancer, fuel our cars, feed the hungry? Looking beyond what the business press is reporting — that a huge global pharmaceutical company bought up and absorbed the largest biotech company; a listing of the current trickle of novel scientific approaches that just got funded; and the latest exciting technology breakthrough actually finding its way to market — looking beyond all that… there has been a distinct sea change in the biotech industry, and I knew it, as I made the rounds at Bio 2009. I wouldn't have known it if I hadn't been one of the gang. Even so, you might mistake it for some malaise that seems to be settling in on all of us lately, cushioned between the rising voice of Paul Krugman and the complete irrelevance of Bernie Madoff's 150-year sentence. No, this was something entirely different. Traditionally at this conference, the BioTech Nation production team hits the ground running, and we're everywhere. From the press room to the exhibit area to the Super Sessions to the panels. And throughout it all, we record biotech interviews seemingly every hour of the day. We always ask: "What's different this year?" We'd already covered the fact that attendance was down — everyone knew it, but let's get real. I defy anyone to know whether you're at a conference with 14,000 people or 20,000 people. How would you know? You don't talk to fewer people. And in point of fact, the major players were all there, and the minor players were there as well. There was also a new cast of characters, interesting in and of themselves. So, what was different? After nearly a week of 15-hour days, listening until my ears bled and talking until I was hoarse, it actually came over me in an instant: Progress is actually being made. Biotechnology was actually becoming a reality. Lo and THE END OF THE BEGINNING: Biotech Enters A New Phase MOIRA A. GUNN, PH.D.