General Biotechnology

Pseudo-controversy continues to rage over whether foods from plants and animals genetically engineered with the newest molecular techniques should have to be labeled as such. The battles, fought in the media, state legislatures, referendum issues, and in federal courts, have been largely fomented and funded by the organic agriculture and food industries. All but one of the proposals to require labeling in the United States have failed, and that exception is being challenged in a federal court . In spite of these failures and the fact that mandatory labeling fails every test –scientific, economic, legal and common-sense–the true believers soldier on.

The regenerative medicine space is one that is set to explode with considerable innovation and profitability for shrewd biotechnologists. I had the opportunity to speak with Michael West, PhD., CEO of BioTime (BTX) and found a man passionate about rege…

Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, weed or pot, is a natural product derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. It has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Recent legislation allowing the use of medical marijuana in over 23 US states has spurred interest in developing pharmaceutical-derived Cannabis products to treat a variety of clinical indications ranging from pain relief to epilepsy.  Many products are in late stage clinical development in the US and elsewhere.  This article reviews the medicinal properties of Cannabis and describes pharmaceutical-derived Cannabis products that are currently being developed for theUS market.

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This is a guest post from Susan K Finston, President of Finston Consulting. Do you have a response to Susan’s

This paper is part of the free Open Access archive of the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology

Can compliance help marketing and business development?

Go to paper

ABSTRACT: In many FDA-regulated companies, the marketing and business development departments have a quietly antagonistic relationship with their quality and regulatory affairs colleagues. While compliance is supposed to ensure that a safe, efficacious and high-quality new product reaches the marketplace, marketing and business development executives are left to grumble: how are consumers – much less partners and investors – supposed to learn about and get excited about a new product if their work is so constricted? This paper suggests that there is a way to turn compliance from the millstone around Marketing’s neck to the whetstone that helps hone a sharper competitive edge…

The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology is a unique forum for all those involved in biotechnology commercialization to present, share, and explore new ideas, latest thinking and best practices, making it an indispensable guide for those developing projects and careers within this fast moving field.

Each issue publishes peer-reviewed, authoritative, cutting-edge articles written by the leading practitioners and researchers in the field, addressing topics such as:

• Management
• Policy
• Finance
• Law
• Regulation
• Bioethics

For more information, see the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology website

On Thursday June 18th from 12:30 to 2pm in Room 119B Mike May and I will be going over the

I will be signing my textbook Building Biotechnology, and other books, in the BIO bookstore on Thursday June 18th from 10:00

TechTransferWatch is a search engine and alert service for licenseable technologies from academic labs, foundations, and government. Click the patents