In October 2012, the European Commission issued a communication on its new Industrial policy identifying biotechnology as one of six Key Enabling Technologies. Biotech will be an important tool in helping Europe deliver on its Europe 2020 strategy of creating an innovative, resource-efficient, smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
When penicillin was discovered by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928, people around the world believed it was one of the greatest medical and scientific advances in the history of mankind and they were right. Before penicillin, a bacterial infection in a minor cut or injury could easily become fatal. Diseases like scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis and diphtheria were essentially untreatable.