Private biotech 2004--the numbers

Compared with the plethora of financial information about the publicly traded elite of the biotech world, little is known about the multitude of private biotech firms. Here, Nature Biotechnology's Editor-at-Large provides an analysis of the financial performance of the privately held biotech sector.     

巴西农业生物技术年报

巴西是世界上第二大植物生物技术农作物生产国。预计在2011-2012年间种植生物技术农作物的面积将增加16%。种植面积的增加主要归因于巴西增加了生物技术玉米事件的审批,并为农民提供信贷补贴。本报告还提供了最新数据用以反映新的贸易信息和政府资源。     

转基因生物技术育种: 机遇还是挑战？

转基因生物技术是一项全新的育种技术, 也是当前国际上进展最快、竞争最激烈的研究领域之一。自20世纪90年代生物技术育种诞生以来, 转基因作物的商品化应用及由此引发的一系列问题就引起公众的广泛关注。该文就世界上转基因生物技术育种及产业化现状、几个主要转基因作物安全性案例及最终结果, 以及如何科学推进我国转基因作物的产业化等提出了自己的思考, 以期帮助公众科学地理解和面对转基因生物技术所带来的育种技术上的革命。     

Biotech round the world: Focus on Norway

Norwegian biotech – The Oslo Cancer Cluster Biotechnology in Oslo among top 20 More funds for biotech companies Hosting the new EMBL-affiliated Center Research funding in Norway: Key facts and figures A website for Norway biotech companies The Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board     

Biotech in the financial crisis

Cover illustration: Biotech in the financial crisis. This special issue of Biotechnology Journal covers how the current financial turmoil creates problems but also chances for biotech. Forum articles and biotech highlights ask whether biotech can rescue economy and environment (green growth). Image © PhotoDisc, Inc.     

我国生物医药企业发展建议

近年来,国外生物医药产业发展迅速,在发达国家,生物医药产品在药品市场中已占有了重要地位,哺乳动物细胞表达的产品已经占据生物医药的主流地位。相比之下,我国生物医药品种主要采用简单的大肠杆菌、酵母表达技术,技术难度较高的哺乳动物细胞药品与国外差距显著,因此,哺乳动物表达的生物药品将成为国内生物医药企业的重要发展机会。多年来,鉴于我国从发达国家获得生物技术转让少,国内生物医药发展需立足于自主研发,建立高效的研发技术平台,选择合适的开发项目,促进企业的发展。     

Coexistence, North American style: regulation and litigation

Globally, biotech crops have left a legacy of success and some notable failures due to regulatory and litigious barriers to entry, with a pipeline of potentially beneficial biotech agricultural products lined up and awaiting approval. Compared with traditional agriculture, these crops provide significant health benefits to environmental and human health benefits, including organic systems. While the rest of the world has increased acreage of biotech crops at a steady annual rate of 10%, North America-the birthplace of most biotech crops-has reached a critical turning point in its regulatory evolution. Biotech crops can play a major role in creating a more sustainable agricultural landscape, which is increasingly well-documented, but future commercial use may be hampered by regulation and litigation that place organic and non-GMO agriculture on a pedestal, which could force many biotech crops into containment. If producers of biotech crops are required to prevent their crops from contaminating these other, high premium specialty crops through migration, innovation in agricultural biotechnology will suffer (as the European experience with agricultural biotechnology clearly demonstrates).     

The development of China's medical biotech industry needs to be driven by innovation

The Chinese biotech industry is going through a period of fast growth, and with its huge population, China is predicted to be the biggest single-country market in the world. However, the Chinese biotech industry has to tackle the critical issue of innovation, which should be the driving force for China's development into an advanced and responsible country. Here, in this article, the authors review the history of the Chinese biotech industry, exemplified by the development of genetically engineered drugs during the last 20 years, and also point out its the future.     

全球生物制药产业发展态势

传统化学制药的黄金时代结束,新化学药品数量下降,而生物技术药物已成为当今最活跃和发展最迅速的领域。随着基因组和蛋白质组研究的深入,越来越多与人类疾病发展相关的靶标被确定,生物制药将有更多的机会获得突破性进展。综述了全球生物制药产业发展的几个态势,主要有：（1）全球生物制药产业的研究成果数量增长迅速;（2）生物制药依然是生物技术产业的重点领域,生物技术药物市场发展规模逐渐扩大,市场集中度高,主要集中于美国和大的跨国公司;（3）生物技术新药在新药研发中的比重越来越大,逐渐成为新药研发主流;（4）生物制药企业间通过加强联盟,来增强新药研发能力和降低新药研发成本;（5）各国政府均重视生物制药产业的发展,出台一系列相关政策。（6）生物疫苗、基因工程药物和基因药物具有良好的市场前景。     

The preeminence of clusters

Many cities and countries still view the foundation of a biotech sector as desirable for a high-tech, intellectually driven economy. But a discussion by seasoned biotech management and investors suggests that attaining an environment with the right mix of money, management and innovation remains a difficult and long-term challenge.     

生物技术产业的知识产权保护和管理

知识产权是一种重要的财产权,它对于一个国家的经济发展和产业进步有着举足轻重的作用。本文探讨了生物技术产业可能涉及的知识产权保护,并着重讨论了其中的专利保护问题,在分析了我国生物技术产业发展知识产权保护的不足之后,指出应加强生物技术产业的知识产权保护意义,健全相应的管理体系,以充分做好生物技术产业的知识产权保护和管理工作,推动我国生物技术产业的健康发展。     

2014 年热门生物技术公司的研发动态

FierceBiotech 网站报道了2014 年最热门的16 家生物技术公司,其涉足生物制药、体外诊断以及医疗器械研发等热门医疗领域,其中多家公司与包括葛兰素史克、罗氏、拜耳、默克等公司在内的制药巨头展开合作,值得医疗行业的投资者关注。对这16 家热门生物技术公司的研发重点、主打产品的适应证/ 用途、合作伙伴、并购交易信息进行归纳总结,旨在为新一代生物技术药物的深入研发提供参考。     

Biotech in India

Cover illustration: The Taj Mahal in Agra is one of the brilliantly outstanding buildings in India. This special issue on “Biotech in India” is edited by Pushpa M. Bhargava and Narayanan Suresh. It features highlights, reviews and research articles on numerous aspects of Indian biotech such as drug development, plant breeding and biotech companies. Image © Corbis Digital Stock     

Process analytical technology (PAT) for biopharmaceutical products: Part I. concepts and applications

Process analytical technology (PAT) has been gaining momentum in the biotech community due to the potential for continuous real‐time quality assurance resulting in improved operational control and compliance. In this two part series, we address PAT as it applies to processes that produce biotech therapeutic products. In the first part, we address evolution of the underlying concepts and applications in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. We also present a literature review of applications in the areas of upstream and downstream processing to illustrate how implementation of PAT can help realize advanced approaches to ensuring product quality in real time. In the second part, we will explore similar applications in the areas of drug product manufacturing, rapid microbiology, and chemometrics as well as evolution of PAT in biotech processing. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010; 105: 276–284. Published 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Chemometrics applications in biotech processes: a review

Biotech unit operations are often characterized by a large number of inputs (operational parameters) and outputs (performance parameters) along with complex correlations amongst them. A typical biotech process starts with the vial of the cell bank, ends with the final product, and has anywhere from 15 to 30 such unit operations in series. The aforementioned parameters can impact process performance and product quality and also interact amongst each other. Chemometrics presents one effective approach to gather process understanding from such complex data sets. The increasing use of chemometrics is fuelled by the gradual acceptance of quality by design and process analytical technology amongst the regulators and the biotech industry, which require enhanced process and product understanding. In this article, we review the topic of chemometrics applications in biotech processes with a special focus on recent major developments. Case studies have been used to highlight some of the significant applications.     

Patent reform acts ugly

Controversial US patent system reforms and rule changes currently being proposed spell big trouble for biotech.     

Can China's supply of scientific talent keep up with demand?

Opportunities for scientists abound as China sets its sights on joining the global biotech sector.     

How many patents does a biopharmaceutical company need?

Young biotech companies may not need extensive patent portfolios to survive or grow.     

Managing your compensation expectations in today's environment: a third look

It is now a seller's market in the biotech industry.