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.

There Be Gold in Them Thar Genes

By Pete Shanks | 02.24.2021

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...

Genomics

Talking Biopolitics: A Conversation with Tina Stevens and Stuart Newman

By Adrienne van der Valk | 05.06.2019

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.

Technologies

Bioengineered Gametes: Techno-Liberation or Techno-Trap?

By Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times | 08.26.2020

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.”

Assisted Reproduction

Twenty Years Later, What Have We Learned from Jesse Gelsinger’s Death?

By Pete Shanks | 09.17.2019

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.

Genomics

Published March 2, 2023

This two-part online CGS event centers social justice and human rights, presenting voices and perspectives from feminist, disability rights, reproductive rights and justice, racial justice, environmental, and human rights movements and scholars, who question whether heritable genome editing has any place in a fair and inclusive future. Day 2 of the symposium includes two panels: "Missing voices speak out," featuring Larkin Taylor Parker, Abril Saldaña, Dana Perls, and Nourbese Flint, and moderated by Emily Galpern; and "Genetic justice beyond the summit," featuring Isabelle Bartram, Maria Ní Flatharta, Milton Reynolds, and Katie Hasson.

Bioethics

George Estreich discusses his most recent book Fables and Futures, inspired by his daughter Laura. Estreich goes beyond the personal to describe the ways that genetic technologies affect society and the stories the promoters of such technologies tell about them. The event took place on May 1, 2019 at the San Francisco Public Library.

Assisted Reproduction