[Pressreleases] "Bioterrorism as a business opportunity in
biotechnology"
RBBAX en aol.com
RBBAX en aol.com
Dom Dic 30 06:15:27 PST 2001
To undisclosed recipients
--
December 29, 2001
Prof. Joe Cummins
e-mail: jcummins en uwo.ca
"Bioterrorism as a business opportunity in biotechnology"
The January 2002 issue of Nature Biotechnology discussed the business
opportunities available to the biotechnology industry. [Nature
Biotechnology] January 2002 Volume 20 Number 1 pp 21 - 25
"Bioterrorism--biotechnology to the rescue?" by Eric Niiler reviewed the
opportunities and developments surrounding the activity following the
release of the bioterror agent anthrax in the United States. The article
is concerned with the following issues: "As bioterrorism becomes a
reality, US federal agencies are turning to biotechnology for new means
of detection and safer therapeutics. But does the industry have all the
answers?
Experts have warned for years about the threat of bioterrorism and its
potential to cripple an unprepared nation. Sadly, their concerns were
vindicated after mailed anthrax spores led to near hysteria in the
United States last autumn. The advent of biowarfare on US shores has
prompted new attention--and a welcome new flux of funding--to this once
obscure field. Quick to make the most of the opportunity, biotechnology
and pharmaceutical companies have lined up for government research
grants and contracts, and investors have been wooed by the promise of
quick profits in security. However, various institutional obstacles
could continue to hamper biowarfare research and development (R&D): the
FDA still lacks guidelines for the clinical testing of therapeutics
against lethal biological agents; the military has a spotty record in
overseeing its own vaccine programs; and defense grants for bioweapons
research are usually too short-lived to enable products to reach
commercial development.The threat is defined: The US Centers for Disease
Control (CDC; Atlanta, GA) has identified potential bioweapons based on
the following criteria: their ease of dissemination or transmission,
potential impact on major public health, the potential for public panic
and social disruption, and how ready public health systems are to cope.
The biological agents of greatest concern include Bacillus anthracis
(anthrax), Yersinia pestis (plague), variola major (smallpox),
Clostridium botulinum toxin (botulism), Francisella tularensis
(tularemia), filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever), and
arenaviruses (Lassa fever, Junin or Argentine hemorrhagic fever, and
related viruses). Most of these diseases are highly contagious, and few
effective vaccines or treatments are available."
The climate of fear in the United States has prompted government grants
for research and development and as well pumped the stocks of many
companies capable of advancing solutions to potential terror weapons or
companies presenting themselves as problem solvers.
"Although government grants have been small--usually only a few million
dollars each--several small biotechnology companies have used these funds
to help grab investors' attention. Shares of small companies developing
detectors and treatments for biological or chemical weapons have
skyrocketed in the past few months as investors line up to pour in
money. For example, Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA) received a $5 million DARPA
grant to build a microfluidics device for rapid detection of the DNA of
airborne organisms. Despite having only $3 million in sales this year,
the company's share price jumped from $1.50 per share in September to
over $8 per share a month later. Shares in Nanogen (San Diego, CA),
which is developing a microchip array capable of detecting biowarfare
agents, also saw its share price nearly triple after announcing a
three-year $1.5 million USAMRIID grant to detect organisms in the blood.
However, despite the investor attention given these high flyers, most
will return to obscurity when the biowarfare scare subsides, says Sam
Olesky, founding money manager at Olesky Capital Management (San
Francisco, CA), a investment company that tracks the biotechnology
industry. "There will be some companies that receive extra funding or
revenues, but is it enough to justify the value of the fervor that has
driven these stocks? Probably not," says Olesky. "My guess is that there
are probably more that will wither away, or go back to usual, than ones
that will benefit strongly or use [the bioterrorism scare] to become a
medium-sized company."
Viren Mehta, senior analyst at Mehta Partners, a New York investment
firm, agrees: "We would recommend investors to be cautious about not
getting swept up in the bioterrorism euphoria or hype," Mehta said. "The
opportunities are there but there are going to be many ups and downs,
and we are not convinced the bioterrorism threat is a real one."
The scenario revealed seems to lie between salvation and "pump and dump".
The present thinking about the anthrax attack in the United States is
that the source of the toxin is more likely a domestic terrorist than
the terror cells of alQueda or its associates. It is unlikely that the
domestic terrorists are engaging in creative marketing of biotechnology
products but the stock market is responding as if it was. Recognizing
the current state of worldwide concern government should carefully
evaluate bioterrorism research and development protocols.
Prof. Joe Cummins
----ends---
Quote:
"All policymakers must be vigilant to the possibility of research data being
manipulated by corporate bodies and of scientific colleagues being seduced
by the material charms of industry. Trust is no defence against an
aggressively deceptive corporate sector,"
THE LANCET, April 2000
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De : joe cummins <jcummins en uwo.ca>
Asunto: B-GE:bioterrorism as a business opportunity
Fecha : Sat, 29 Dec 2001 21:11:47 -0500
Tamaño: 6894
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