Biomedical companies are involved in an area of biotechnology which can have a dramatic impact in the way many people have to live. There are many people dependent upon drug therapies just to stay alive, and on transplants for their only hope of long term survival and a normal life, despite the many advances which medical science has already made. The advances which biotechnology can bring offer a different dimension in the way many conditions are treated, including complete cure in many cases where cure was previously though impossible.
The advances which have already been made in the pharmaceutical and medical arenas have lagged behind the developments in food production. This is partly due to the increased difficulty involved in carrying out the research which is needed to determine whether a certain system is going to be safe, and partly because of the delays involved in organizing human trials. There is also a far greater degree of complexity in medical biotechnology than there is with biotechnology in food. There are more different types of drugs, and these need to be matched with the right plants to carry the genes which need to be reproduced.
There are two functions which biotechnology can carry out within the pharmaceutical industry. The first is to create new drugs which have never been seen or used before, and the other is to increase production of existing drugs. The development of new drugs is always going to take a huge investment of time and money, as they need to be extensively tried and then approved by the FDA before they can go on to the commercial market. The use of biotechnology in producing new drugs will increase over time, as the research for previous projects can be used in any new developments which may be made.
The work which biomedical companies are currently seeking to carry out is the increased production of drugs which are necessary to human survival and which have been proven to work. An excellent example of this is insulin, the drug which diabetics need because their pancreas has stopped producing it naturally. This drug can be produced using biotechnology, and the resulting product is no different in quality from that which is produced in a conventional laboratory. The only restrictions on the quantity of the drug which can be produced are land space and the ability of the crop which is used to grow in the soil.
There are other areas in which biotechnology can potentially help doctors and medical science. It is possible for entire human beings to be cloned, and there has already been the successful cloning of a sheep in a laboratory. Cloning is extremely controversial, and there will be many moral arguments in the future about the right of human beings to play God and to create life. What is far less controversial, and certainly less risky, is the possibility of cloning body parts which will be identical to the original parts of a human body. These body parts could be used in transplants in place of the parts of other bodies.
The work which biomedical companies do is obviously going to be expensive to finance and difficult to regulate. There are government departments which always need to be satisfied before any development can be used on a commercial scale, so the money which is invested in these companies is obviously at the most extreme end of risk capital. Nevertheless, for those who are able to work extremely high risk investments into their portfolios, there are potentially high and exciting gains to be made from investing in biomedical companies
The advances which have already been made in the pharmaceutical and medical arenas have lagged behind the developments in food production. This is partly due to the increased difficulty involved in carrying out the research which is needed to determine whether a certain system is going to be safe, and partly because of the delays involved in organizing human trials. There is also a far greater degree of complexity in medical biotechnology than there is with biotechnology in food. There are more different types of drugs, and these need to be matched with the right plants to carry the genes which need to be reproduced.
There are two functions which biotechnology can carry out within the pharmaceutical industry. The first is to create new drugs which have never been seen or used before, and the other is to increase production of existing drugs. The development of new drugs is always going to take a huge investment of time and money, as they need to be extensively tried and then approved by the FDA before they can go on to the commercial market. The use of biotechnology in producing new drugs will increase over time, as the research for previous projects can be used in any new developments which may be made.
The work which biomedical companies are currently seeking to carry out is the increased production of drugs which are necessary to human survival and which have been proven to work. An excellent example of this is insulin, the drug which diabetics need because their pancreas has stopped producing it naturally. This drug can be produced using biotechnology, and the resulting product is no different in quality from that which is produced in a conventional laboratory. The only restrictions on the quantity of the drug which can be produced are land space and the ability of the crop which is used to grow in the soil.
There are other areas in which biotechnology can potentially help doctors and medical science. It is possible for entire human beings to be cloned, and there has already been the successful cloning of a sheep in a laboratory. Cloning is extremely controversial, and there will be many moral arguments in the future about the right of human beings to play God and to create life. What is far less controversial, and certainly less risky, is the possibility of cloning body parts which will be identical to the original parts of a human body. These body parts could be used in transplants in place of the parts of other bodies.
The work which biomedical companies do is obviously going to be expensive to finance and difficult to regulate. There are government departments which always need to be satisfied before any development can be used on a commercial scale, so the money which is invested in these companies is obviously at the most extreme end of risk capital. Nevertheless, for those who are able to work extremely high risk investments into their portfolios, there are potentially high and exciting gains to be made from investing in biomedical companies
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