Our Future Is Biotech

Welcome to the biotech revolution In the last century, technology has transformed the human experience across the world. This has been super-charged by the arrival of the internet, smart phones, AI and machine learning, and created trillion-plus dollar companies and household names like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Our Future is Biotech explains why biotech is next: because our biggest remaining challenges as a species concern biological systems. Biotech companies will solve our most intractable problems, from cancer, dementia, obesity and diabetes to elderly care, mental health conditions, and even power generation, agricultural production and environmental degradation. Biotech means that we will live better, safer, healthier, wealthier, happier, and longer lives. The industry has already delivered "miracle cures" for several diseases, and there is more to come. But despite this, few people are aware of the phenomenal progress being made. Our Future is Biotech addresses this, explaining what biotech is, what is coming next, and how you might profit from it too. Tech has been the most important theme for human progress for the last century. Biotech is next.

"An essential read for anyone committed to understanding the technologies that will define our future." CHRISTIAN ANGERMAYER, BIOTECH ENTREPRENEUR AND FOUNDER OF APEIRON INVESTMENT GROUP Welcome to the biotech revolution In the last century, technology has transformed the human experience across the world. This has been super-charged by the arrival of the internet, smart phones, AI and machine learning, and created trillion-plus dollar companies and household names like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Our Future is Biotech explains why biotech is next: because our biggest remaining challenges as a species concern biological systems. Biotech companies will solve our most intractable problems, from cancer, dementia, obesity and diabetes to elderly care, mental health conditions, and even clean power generation, agricultural production and environmental degradation. Biotech means that we can all live better, safer, healthier, wealthier, happier, and longer lives. The industry has already delivered "miracle cures" for several diseases, and there is more to come. But despite this, few people are aware of the phenomenal progress being made. Our Future is Biotech addresses this, explaining what biotech is, what is coming next, and how you might profit from it too. Tech has been the most important theme for human progress for the last century. Biotech is next.

Why has the biotechnology industry failed to perform up to expectations? This book attempts to answer this question by providing a critique of the industry. It reveals the causes of biotech's problems and offers an analysis on how the industry works. It also provides prescriptions for companies, seeking ways to improve the industry's performance.

The Apples, Amazons and Googles of the next few decades will be biotech companies. The tech companies of the last few years have changed how we do things but the businesses driving the biotech revolution are about making life better. These companies will solve many of our most intractable problems: cancer, dementia, diabetes, elderly care, mental health challenges, even power generation and agricultural production. Biotech will mean that we can live far better, safer, healthier, wealthier, happier, and longer lives.Very few people in the general population have any idea of the phenomenal progress being made in these areas. There are already "miracle cures" for several diseases with far more to come. Exponential progress will drive the price of such things down far enough to make them widely available globally. This goes a long way beyond just "healthcare". These technologies could be key to dealing with climate change and the destruction of the natural world.This is a landmark and important book by a biotech investment expert who has been working in the industry for the past 6.5 years and knows how biotech does and doesn't work. The book explains what biotech is, what is coming next, and how investors can profit from it.

Is a baby whose personality has been chosen from a gene supermarket still a human? If we choose what we create what happens to morality? Is this the end of human nature? The dramatic advances in DNA technology over the last few years are the stuff of science fiction. It is now not only possible to clone human beings it is happening. For the first time since the creation of the earth four billion years ago, or the emergence of mankind 10 million years ago, people will be able to choose their children's' sex, height, colour, personality traits and intelligence. It will even be possible to create 'superhumans' by mixing human genes with those of other animals for extra strength or longevity. But is this desirable? What are the moral and political consequences? Will it mean anything to talk about 'human nature' any more? Is this the end of human beings? Our Posthuman Future is a passionate analysis of the greatest political and moral problem ever to face the human race.

Breakthroughs in biotechnology are redefining the very concept of life, transforming society and presenting unprecedented opportunities and challenges: will human genome sequencing help to treat genetic diseases and indefinitely prolong life? Can nature's workshops inspire superior biomaterials that transform industries? Will genetically modified super crops feed a hungry world? With biotechnology set to be the driving force of the twenty-first century, mastery of the life sciences will be the key to wealth generation and economic ascendancy. Can the Arab world regain its past supremacy in these fields? Can it benefit from the biotech revolution while avoiding its perils? These essays examine the complex ethical, legal and social issues raised by the biotech revolution that need to be resolved by governments and decision makers.

When scientists working in the agricultural biotechnology industry first altered the genetic material of one organism by introducing genes from an entirely different organism, the reaction was generally enthusiastic. To many, these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) promised to solve the challenges faced by farmers and to relieve world hunger. Yet within a decade, this “gene revolution” had abruptly stalled. Widespread protests against the potential dangers of “Frankenfoods” and the patenting of seed supplies in the developing world forced the industry to change course. As a result, in the late 1990s, some of the world’s largest firms reduced their investment in the agricultural sector, narrowed their focus to a few select crops, or sold off their agricultural divisions altogether. Fighting for the Future of Food tells the story of how a small group of social activists, working together across tables, continents, and the Internet, took on the biotech industry and achieved stunning success. Rachel Schurman and William A. Munro detail how the anti-biotech movement managed to alter public perceptions about GMOs and close markets to such products. Drawing strength from an alternative worldview that sustained its members’ sense of urgency and commitment, the anti-GMO movement exploited political opportunities created by the organization and culture of the biotechnology industry itself. Fighting for the Future of Food ultimately addresses society’s understanding and trust (or mistrust) of technological innovation and the complexities of the global agricultural system that provides our food.

Preserving the Promise: Improving the Culture of Biotech Investment critically examines why most biotech startups fail, as they emerge from universities into an ecosystem that inhibits rather than encourages innovation. This "Valley of Death" squanders our public investments in medical research and with them, the promise of longer and healthier lives. The authors explicate the Translation Gap faced by early stage biotech companies, the result of problematic technology transfer and investment practices, and provide specific prescriptions for improving translation of important discoveries into safe and effective therapies. In Preserving the Promise, Dessain and Fishman build on their collective experience as company founders, healthcare investor (Fishman) and physician/scientist (Dessain). The book offers a forward-looking, critical analysis of "conventional wisdom" that encumbers commercialization practices. It exposes the self-defeating habits of drug development in the Valley of Death, that waste money and extinguish innovative technologies through distorted financial incentives. Explains why translation of biotech discovery into medicine succeeds so infrequently that it’s been dubbed the Valley of Death Uncovers specific decision-making strategies that more effectively align incentives, improving clinical and financial outcomes for investors, inventor/entrepreneurs, and patients Examines the critical, early stages of commercialization, where technology transfer offices and Angels act as gatekeepers to development, and where tension between short-term financial and long-term clinical aspirations sinks important technologies Deconstructs the forces driving biotech, recasts them in a proven conceptual framework, and offers practical guidance for making the system better