|
|
| The View From Here A common theme in the formation of a new global hotspot in our flat world of biotechnology is government support, regardless of the form of government. Moreover, in addition to government support, the involvement of academia and the private financial sector are also instrumental. Examples of consortia between these three sectors that promote biotechnology and produce hotspots are the following: the Edinburgh Science Triangle and the PharmaLinks initiative in Scotland; Uppsala BIO in Sweden; Enterprise Ireland; and the Biomedical Sciences (BMX) initiative in Singapore, which has spawned the Biopolis. These initiatives and the hotspots they have created make for good reading in this issue of Drug Discovery Today E-Choice. Enjoy the read! Norton P. Peet Norton P. Peet is a consultant, advisor and/or SAB member for several companies, including Repligen Corporation, CreaGen Biosciences, Inc., Vivo Biosciences, Inc., ShanghaiBio Corporation and Microbiotix, Inc., where he is a member of the Executive Team. Previous positions held by Dr. Peet are the following: CEO of Aurigene Discovery Technologies; VP of Discovery Alliances at ArQule; and Distinguished Scientist and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Aventis. Dr. Peet is on the Advisory Editorial Board for Drug Discovery Today. |
You may be surprised to learn about emerging biotech hotspots in this issue of Drug Discovery Today. E-Choice. In this category we immediately think of India and China. We also think of Boston, San Diego, the UK, Moscow, Korea and Southeast Asia. These locations all are biotech locations – some are hubs – and clearly new companies constantly start up in all of these places. The aforementioned places, however, are well-established biotechnology locations and the intent of this issue is to showcase new emergences. For instance, Wisconsin and Scotland (who would have guessed?) are two places where biotechnology is newly thriving. Other emerging hot spots include upstate New York, South Africa, Singapore, North Carolina, Florida (eg, the expansion of Scripps), Washington State, Israel, Uppsala and Ireland. The new growth of biotechnology in several of these locations is highlighted in accompanying articles.