Biotech & Pharma

Biotech and Pharma refer to the commercial sectors that develop, manufacture, and market products that use or intervene in biological processes. Multinational pharmaceutical companies have invested heavily in biotechnologies as a potential source of new drugs and devices. The biotech and pharma industries often oppose public oversight and regulation, despite their involvement in socially and ethically controversial products and activities. Because their involvement blurs the lines between private enterprise and public interest, biotech’s activities must be transparent and their interests acknowledged.

Biopolitical Times

We were shocked — shocked — to learn that 23andMe is cashing in on its customers’ spit. $3.5 billion, the company is worth, they say, now that it’s going public. That is an awful lot of $99 gene tests! Except that the business model is not, and never has been, about cash flow from individual customers. No, the big money is in leasing out genetic data to pharmaceutical companies and other researchers.

Forgive us, just this once: We told...

Biopolitical Times
Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience (Routledge, 2019) documents the intensifying effort of bioentrepreneurs to apply genetic engineering technologies to the human species and to extend the commercial reach of synthetic biology. CGS spoke with authors Tina Stevens and Stuart Newman about the stories that led them to write Biotech Juggernaut and how they see this phenomenon playing out in 2019.
Biopolitical Times
Writing in the pages of The New York Times, Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar argues that a coming technological breakthrough – in vitro gametogenesis, or gametes manufactured from ordinary body cells – will herald a “revolution” that will “dismantle completely the reproductive structure of heterosexuality.”
Biopolitical Times
When Jesse was 18, he decided to volunteer for a gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania. He died four days later.
A medical expert wearing gloves and a white coat, hold a needle as a patient extends their arm.

Aggregated News

Repeating letters ATCG in a colorful chart that represents a DNA sequence.

CGS-authored

Silhouette of a tractor in a crop field. Against its background is a sunset, and blue skies with clouds

Aggregated News

A baby plays with a blanket that they are laying on. The baby is wearing pink glasses frames without lenses, with the words "Kiss."

Aggregated News

A curved tunnel-like structure with repeating number sequences. The curved tunnel subtly suggests a light at the end of it.

Aggregated News

In a grass field, a brown and white cow stares. On its right ear, there is an identification tag.

Aggregated News

A spotlight illuminates a puzzle of a double helix that is being assembled, but with missing pieces that are staggered around its border.

Aggregated News

A building, with a sign in front reading "US Department of Health and Human Services Federal Regulation Administration."

Aggregated News