From Alchemy to IPO: The Business of Biotechnology by Cynthia Robbins Roth

4. Robert Langer, a faculty member at MIT 's prestigious Whitehead Institute, is mentioned in the article. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of In Vivo Therapeutics and has a long list of accomplishments. As a faculty member should he or others who are full time faculty members at any university or college have constraints on their contributions to and activity with biotechnology companies? How might you design a fair strategic plan that would allow university research faculty to translate their work into new medical devices or practices that have both commercial and medical potential?

In “Patenting Life,” Michael Crichton argues that the government is mishandling the patenting office with the awarding of patents for human genes. Gene patenting is blocking the advancement of modern medicine and could be costing many patients their lives. The hold on research results in the discovery of fewer cures for modern diseases.

GMOs are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. The GMO debate has a huge gap just like the climate change’s ambiguous debate. Some people are for the consumption of it and have as arguments that GMOs will feed the future population of the world that is expected to double in the few years to come, or that scientists can build stronger crops that resist to pests, therefore less use of pesticides. Some are against these ideas because they think that GMOs represent a threat to the environment and that they can cause a lot of health problems. The goal of this paper is to look at two articles “The GMO Debate is Over Again” by Mark Lynas and" Seeds of Evil: Monsanto and Genetic Engineering" by Dr. Joseph Mercola, and see where the use rhetorical strategies are effective and where they are not.

In order to continue surviving as a company, Myriad Genetics must gain some upper hand. They accomplished that by patenting the gene. To get their company started, Myriad needed financial support from private companies. Private companies would not fund a smaller company unless they were different and superior in some way. Myriad’s patent gave them just the control they needed to be seen as fundable. From this example, I want to emphasize how gene patents help scientific growth. If patents on genes were not available, companies like Myriad Genetics would not be able to stand out in a crowd of many gene researchers. People like to be rewarded for what they do, but if the chance of being rewarded for your years of hard work and money are very slim, then scientists may not be

Scientists continue to find new ways to insert genes for specific traits into plant and animal DNA. A field of promise—and a subject of debate—genetic engineering is changing the food we eat and the world we live in.

Into the Jungle written by Upton Sinclair was published during the Ragtime era to expose the mistreatment of workers, and in addition highlight the problems that were going on in the food industry. These problems are very similar to the ones we're facing now with GM food. But first and foremost. What is a GMO?

Controversy. Often heard on the news and found plastering the headlines of shady websites. However, there is none more associated with the word than the practice of genetically modifying organisms. Ever since the Industrial Revolution,the shift from manual labor to steam power, technology has developed at an accelerated pace, paving the way for greater innovation. Recently, the emergence of Biotechnology from the study of DNA has allowed for the creation of GMOs, organisms whose genes has been edited in order to express a certain trait. GMOs are most commonly used in agriculture, often designed for herbicide resistance or pesticide creation. Due to Media overreaction and false studies, the public has been whipped into a frenzy, demanding scientists

Before we start to talk about this visual image we should talk about the article I created. My editorial titled “The Beginning of the GMO Era” discusses the misconceptions that the general public have about GMOs—like it causes cancer, death, and a few others. I then argue that none of those have been proven and point out some benefit of GMOS, like how they can save lives producing bigger harvests, and improving the lives of people who currently live in poverty. Transforming this verbal claim from my editorial into a visual argument was an intriguing experience—I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I had a rather difficult time bringing it into existence. Having said that, I am pleased with the way my visual turned

The patenting issue gained some attention when President Bill Clinton and Prime Minster Tony Blair jointly called for the release of raw genetic data into the public domain (CQ 405). I will argue in this paper that the aggressive competition among biotechnology firms to patent genes is

Then, in 1990 the first types of GMOS were being placed into the industry. GMOS have slowly been introduced into daily lives until it has become nearly impossible not to find any. The main players in the GMO corporation include BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto, Syngenta, Science Media Centre and Fiona Fox. These key companies control the Biotech industry and are the dominant forces in the agricultural market. Monsanto is one of the top producers of GMO seeds that produce seeds that tolerate their key product- Roundup. THESIS ___________________________________________________________________

Students should see that the risks of the biotech business are driving all of MoGen’s financial decisions: debt policy, dividend policy, and share repurchase program. Debt is relatively low because higher debt levels would result in debt rating decreases and therefore higher interest rates. Similarly, the company chooses to pay no dividends because of the risk of being forced to cut the dividend during the difficult times that invariably arise in a biotech business. Students should realize that a share repurchase program is a very good match for a biotech company like MoGen. The company can distribute cash to its shareholders when profits allow, but without making an explicit (debt) or implicit (dividends) promise to the market.

Located in South San Francisco, CA, Genentech was started in 1976 by a biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer and Robert A. Swanson. From 1995-2009 Arthur Levinson had become the CEO of Genentech; presently it is Ian T. Clark. Genentech is a leading biotechnology company, using human genetic information to discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize medicines to treat people with serious or life-threatening medical conditions (2014). Biotechnology is the technology based on the science of cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve peoples’ lives and the health of our environment. How biotechnology uses cellular and biomolecular processes are by using molecular mechanisms by which genetic and

The process of life has always intrigued me. From the abundance of technology being created every day to new cures battling new diseases, the world of biology is continually changing. I have always dreamt of being part of a field whose main purpose is to help others and to improve the world around us; to me that is Biotechnology. Biotechnology is the field for future innovations that benefits an individual, but also the society.

Further, our strategy involved paying attention to current events and attempting to use them to generate a return. For example, Horizon Pharmaceuticals’ stock price took a nosedive after an October 19th New York Times article suggested that Horizon was attempting to thwart Express Scripts’ attempts to lower the price of prescription drugs. The decision was made to buy 100 shares of stock in Horizon when its price spiraled down to a measly $14.62 per share, as we expected Horizon would do something to stop the bleeding, and historically has been a pretty volatile stock. Horizon came back with a scorching rebuttal in an open letter later that day, spiking its stock price more than 30% on October 23rd, and by October 28th, this move landed us our greatest return of any stock that we purchased and held until the end of the period: 18% (see appendix).

Lilly BioVentures utlizied Eli Lilly and Companies network for its deal flow. Once a potitail start-ups was picked Lilly BioVentures would assess the risks and check the star-ups background. It also became a resource for its portfolio start-ups, which was a plus for start-ups entering in to a deal with Lilly BioVentures. The goal of Lilly BioVentures was to operate like a venture capital firm as much as possible. Schalliol emphasized: “Our goal was to make money, to beat the corporate hurdle rate. We described ourselves as financial investors in areas of strategic interest.” Many of the deal that Lilly BioVentures entered in to was though a syndicate, which brought more funds form other venture capital firms as well as different expertise for the start-up. Through these types of deals Eli Lilly and Company was able to gain competitive advantage over its rivals.