In a post-petroleum society, biorefineries – along with the farmers and foresters who source raw materials – are at the heart of the economy. No matter how you define it, the concept remains the same: converting raw materials into useful products for society. Instead of fossil fuels, the biobased economy employs renewable resources and wastes to produce a series of products useful to society: biofuels, bioenergy, biochemicals, bioplastics and other biomaterials.
Shifting paradigms in EU biotechnology policies
OpinionThe start of Europe’s new financial framework and the framework research programme Horizon 2020 seems a good moment to take a step back and look into some recent and not so recent – but even more substantial – changes in (bio-)technology policy paradigms.
Will regulation finally pay off for Europe?
OpinionA recent interesting look at markets beyond Europe has given some interesting food for thought. You know, sometimes the EU is actually easier to do business in than many other places. Sounds a bit crazy, but compared with some emerging markets, Europe looks like a safe place to invest in the longer term.
Carsten Thiel: In biosimilars, don’t do ‘more’ just get it right
OpinionBiosimilar products are not generic medicines, nor are they identical to their reference product or each other. Instead, they are similar versions of well-established recombinant proteins with well-characterised structures and pharmacology. All biologics (biosimilars and reference products) have complicated safety and immunogenicity profiles.
Is getting specialised smart? Europe is going to find out.
OpinionEurope has a wealth of talent and skills embedded in its regions, skills which are highly diverse and usually associated with a long history of trade and culture.
A Bioeconomy PPP the next generation in collaboration
OpinionAs Horizon 2020 takes shape, I was keen to read about the new public private initiative that will target the bioeconomy. Public private partnerships mark a significant change in how collaborative research is undertaken in Europe, and they are a logical progression from the requirement to work across national borders.
Peter Liese: Learning to regulate powerful new diagnostics
OpinionIn September of last year, the European Commission presented a proposal concerning a revision of the in vitro diagnostics medical devices (IVD) Directive. The European Parliament and Council will negotiate the concrete wording of the regulation in the coming months, which means it will probably enter into force within the next three to five years.
Another step towards increasing patient access to orphan drugs?
OpinionAs part of the outcomes of the European Commission’s Process on Corporate Responsibility in the Field of Pharmaceuticals from 17 April 2013, Member States formally endorsed recommendations on a potential coordinated and collaborative approach to address access to orphan medicinal products: the Mechanism of Coordinated Access to Orphan Medicinal Products (MOCA).
Genetic testing: should consumers have the right to decide?
OpinionEurope’s consumers have an often turbulent relatioship with science. Advice from scientists that clashes with lifestyle preferences finds governments reluctant to appear as over–zealous legislators, especially if it makes them unpopular with either groups of voters or the large companies that are often associated with the particular bit of lifestyle under threat.
Dirk Carrez: The BRIDGE to a biobased economy in the EU
OpinionIn a post-petroleum society, biorefineries – along with the farmers and foresters who source raw materials – are at the heart of the economy. No matter how you define it, the concept remains the same: converting raw materials into useful products for society. Instead of fossil fuels, the biobased economy employs renewable resources and wastes to produce a series of products useful to society: biofuels, bioenergy, biochemicals, bioplastics and other biomaterials.
BIO: the synthesis of brilliance
OpinionBrussels Greetings readers! The observant of you will note that I have strayed far from Brussels in my quest for knowledge I was lucky enough to attend the BIO convention in Chicago in late April, and where better to listen out for sage advice? So what did I hear?