The European Court of Justice ruling from 2018 which put the latest breeding methods under the EU GMO legislation was a huge pushback for plant breeding innovation in the EU. With the proposal for a new regulation for certain new genomic techniques (NGTs) published on 5 July 2023, some faith in a rebirth of plant breeding innovation may just start to return.
Stock markets love investment concepts, calling the robust ones ‘megatrends’. Golden ageing is one such megatrend banking on the fact that business can extract more from people living longer. Such megatrend investments help – up to the moment when rising interest rates crash the party.
Stock markets love investment concepts, calling the robust ones ‘megatrends’. Golden ageing is one such megatrend banking on the fact that business can extract more from people living longer. Such megatrend investments help – up to the moment when rising interest rates crash the party.
Biotechnology is helping us tackle challenges such as emerging diseases, the impact of ageing in healthcare, population growth, climate change, and the green transition of the economy. Precision medicines, advanced therapies, mRNA and gene editing technologies are transforming the way diseases can be diagnosed and treated, providing life-saving solutions. Biotechnology is also at the forefront of building a sustainable economy, developing better crops, providing new protein sources, and producing bio-based materials.
Inflation has rebounded with a vengeance from its pandemic-induced recession lows. The US headline inflation rate surged to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, while the Eurozone’s Harmonised Index of Consumer Price (HICP) rose to the highest level in its entire 30-year lifespan.
The bioeconomy can be a major driver in bringing circularity, sustainability and competitive production to Europe as it aims towards becoming climate-neutral and more self-sufficient.
In 2016, PharmaMar filed a European marketing authorisation application for Aplidin as a treatment for patients with multiple myeloma. After the European Medicines Agency rejected the MAA twice, which was accepted in Australia with the same data, PharmaMar sued the EC. European Biotechnology spoke with PharmaMar’s Chairman José María Fernández Sousa-Faro.
From its all-time high in August 2021 the largest and most important index for the biotech industry also in Europe (NBI) lost around 25%. After a period of excessive capital inflows, money is much harder to come by these days. The answer can only be more creativity in structuring deals.
In a world where biotechnology has been enabling products and processes for decades, it’s time to step out from behind the technology and claim the resulting products and their value in our everyday life. It needs higher visibility and recognition of impact, moving beyond its ‘enabling’ brand which forever makes it sound like the benefits are just around the corner, rather than the existing significant economic and industrial impact.