Politics, governance and life science innovation: How to get more bang for the bucks you’ve already spent

At the Conservative Party Conference on 5 Oct 2010 Professor Joyce Tait raised the following points about policy, governance and life science innovation. Joyce’s talk was part of Innogen’s contribution to the 2010 EGN Party Conference Fringe Programme.

Investment in biotechnology and life science research is expected to stimulate innovation and the UK's economic recovery. While this investment is needed, Innogen research shows that it is radical changes in governance and regulatory systems for life sciences that will be the key to maximising public benefit (economically and societally) from the money already spent on scientific research and from future investments.

How to build an ideas factory

By Mariana Mazzucato
Published on guardian.co.uk at on Saturday 9 October 2010.

The Tories have told us that they want the UK to become a "factory of ideas", fuelling the economy, and indeed the world, with new products and services. Policy and headlines so far have focused on cuts as the central plank of the economic policy. Little attention has been given to the much needed growth plan that will deliver the promised innovation and prosperity.

Biofuels and the Globalization of Risk: The Biggest Change in North-South Relationships Since Colonialism?

By James Smith

We are facing a future shaped by uncertainty. ‘Perfect storms’ of food and energy insecurity, the threat of climate change, and growing interdependencies are generating global risks of irreconcilable complexity. This coupling of uncertainty and complexity creates environmental, economic and social risks; and so-called solutions risk exacerbating problems rather than alleviating them.

Cloning futures?

It has recently emerged that meat from cloned animals has entered the UK food chain without authorisation under the Novel Food Regulations. The safety of these products, the welfare of the cloned animals and how the general population perceives the risk of this technology pose challenges for policymakers. In the European Parliament, MEPs voted to ban cloning-derived products and this could become EU law in the autumn.

Agricultural Innovation and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tracing Connections and Missing Links

Julius Mugwagwa and Simon Outram edited a Special Issue of the Journal of International Development (Vol 22, Issue 3), published in April 2010. Here, Julius describes some of the background to this issue:

With a special emphasis on agricultural biotechnologies, the special issue examines from different perspectives why advanced expertise and technological availability have seemingly had only a minor impact on the productivity of agriculture and hence food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sustainable Businesses in the Regenerative Medicine Industry

By Joyce Tait

Successful and sustainable businesses in the Regenerative Medicine industry need to incorporate strategies to address key factors beyond individual business boundaries. These include legal, ethical and financial frameworks, distribution and logistics, and end users willingness to adopt and ability to pay. Business models need to be well adapted to the needs of this market and wil vary depending on whether the end product is a cellular therapy, a delivery system for cells, genes or small molecules or enabling tools and technologies for stimulating endogenous repair. The value systems for each of these types of products are likely to have unique features but will also need to be compliant with global regulatory and legal frameworks.

Does DNA = life?

Jane Calvert and Emma Frow reflect on the Venter Institute’s breakthrough

The publication of the paper ‘Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome’ by scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute has been accompanied by the expression of a whole spectrum of hopes and fears that we have come to associate with new biotechnologies. But we suggest that some of the more overlooked features of the paper may turn out to be the most interesting. Here we highlight four.