The Approval of Over-the-Counter HIV Tests: Playing Fair When Making the Rules

This paper looks at some of the ethical concerns regarding a recent application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of the sale of HIV tests over-the-counter (OTC) directly to consumers. The concept of at-home HIV testing is not new, but OraSure Technologies Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of rapid HIV tests, is now seeking FDA approval to take at-home testing one step further to enable consumers to test themselves and interpret the results without the assistance of an outside party. This paper reviews some of the purported benefits and potential risks of at-home HIV testing, and looks at the way one Canadian company is attempting to address the potential risks. In doing so, this paper brings to the fore concerns regarding corporate involvement in the regulatory approval of biotech products.     

Canada’s Stem Cell Corporation: Aggregate Concerns and the Question of Public Trust

This paper examines one nascent entrepreneurial endeavour intended by Canada’s Stem Cell Network to catalyze the commercialization of stem cell research: the creation of a company called “Aggregate Therapeutics”. We argue that this initiative, in its current configuration, is likely to result in a breach of public trust owing to three inter-related concerns: conflicts of interest; corporate influence on the university research agenda; and the failure to provide some form of direct return for the public’s substantial tax dollar investment. These concerns are common to many efforts to commercialize academic science but are rendered particularly acute in this case given the therapeutic promise of stem cell research and the considerable number of resources related to stem cell research in Canada, which Aggregate Therapeutics is expected to pool. We do, however, believe that the company can be altered to guard against a violation of the public’s trust, and so we present concrete modifications to its structure, which we contend should be given immediate consideration. Matthew Herder is a candidate for the Master of the Science of Law (JSM) degree at Stanford University. Prior to undertaking his studies at Stanford, Matthew completed LLM and LLB degrees at Dalhousie University, clerked at the Federal Court of Canada and articled at McCarthy Tetrault LLP in Toronto, Ontario. Matthew is also a member of the Novel Tech Ethics research team at Dalhousie University. Jennifer Dyck Brian is a Ph.D. student in the Bioethics, Policy, and Law program at the Center for Biology & Society at Arizona State University. Previously, Jennifer worked as research assistant at the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at ASU, Wellesley College, and with the Novel Tech Ethics research team at Dalhousie University. Jennifer completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario.     

Factors influencing adoption of genetically modified crops in Africa

The debate around genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa continues to grow especially among policy-makers, food manufacturers, farmer organisation and consumer advocacy groups and the general public. While other regions have taken a firm position on biotech crops, Africa remains largely ambivalent, with wide variation in GM policy across countries. The central objective of this paper is to analyse the factors that influence the adoption of GM crops in Africa. First we evaluate the current status of GM crop adoption in Africa. Second we identify the key enablers and hindrances to adoption of GM crops. The main factors include ministerial control of biosafety, peer country influence, stage of seed sector development, advocacy by key political figures, the media, activism, food security and technical capacity. We posit that, for most African countries, GM policy is guided by political rather than technological considerations with media and special interest groups playing a key role. Despite the numerous impediments, slow progress is being made in preparing the requisite enabling environment for biotechnology adoption in Africa.     

提高生物技术专业生产实习质量的实践与思考——以陕西师范大学为例

生产实习是生物技术专业重要的教学实践环节,也是引导学生理论联系实际,提高分析问题、解决问题能力的重要途径。本文以陕西师范大学生物技术专业生产实习为例,分析了生产实习的特点及重要性,探讨了存在的问题与困难,并提出进一步提高实习质量的有效措施。     

Development Trajectories in the Biotechnology Industry： China versus Leading Countries

The present paper examines China's biotechnology industry from a global perspective and explores how its development trajectory differs from that of countries that are leaders in biotechnology. We draw on diverse data to demonstrate the unique development trajectory of the industry in China. China has benefited through targeted spin‐offs of R&D‐oriented foreign direct investment from developed countries driven by the effects of globalization, government‐encouraged collaboration between the domestic academia and industry, and the input of overseas returnees. Together with an increasing focus of the government and domestic enterprises on independent innovation, such developments have enabled China to catch up with the global biotechnology industry. However, its small scale and low capacity for commercializing innovations under China's current regulations and other barriers pose challenges for the development of the industry. Suggestions for the sustainable development of China's biotechnology industry are presented in this study.     

The influence of causation and effectuation logics on targeted policies: the cases of Singapore and Israel

We examine the causation and effectuation logics for implementing targeted biotechnology policies using two case studies: Singapore (causation) and Israel (effectuation). After more than a decade of implementing targeted biotechnology policies, both Singapore and Israel have failed to create fully fledged biotech clusters. Singapore has been unsuccessful in creating vibrant entrepreneurial activity that will support its transformation into a knowledge economy. Israel has failed to turn its 1000 small, dedicated biotechnology firms into a substantial engine of growth and employment. The paper questions how these two policy approaches influenced the targeting of the biotechnology sectors and identifies the limits of these approaches in supporting targeting. We conclude that a combination of the two logics is needed, especially when targeting complex sectors with a yet unknown development path.     

Interfirm cooperation and startup innovation in the biotechnology industry

This paper examines the association between interfirm cooperation and the innovation output of startup firms in the biotechnology industry. A reciprocal association is hypothesized. The results, however, show only that cooperation affects innovation. Several control variables are related to cooperation and innovation, especially the startup's position in the cooperative network.     

Complementarities and spillovers in mergers: an empirical investigation using patent data

We investigate the merger behavior of firms in the plant biotechnology sector using firm-level patent data for public and private firms in the 1980s and 1990s. Conditional logit estimation is used to estimate the probability that the firms will match in mergers and spinoffs. We calculate several patent portfolio-based measures of complementarity and spillovers between firms, and find that both are important to defining a good match of acquirer and target. However, complementarities provide the more robust explanation. The mergers and spinoffs observed in plant biotechnology may have been designed to overcome the anti-commons problem of mutually blocking technology, an extreme form of complementarity. Our results highlight the need to integrate patent and competition policy.     

Knowledge Spillovers and Alliance Formation

Our study examines the conditions under which firms enter into strategic alliances subsequent to knowledge spillovers. We propose that spillovers serve as signals of knowledge dependence and potential complementarity, encouraging alliance formation to enable better learning and limit appropriation. We posit that the likelihood of a knowledge alliance subsequent to a spillover is contingent on the specialization of each of the firms in the knowledge involved in the spillover. We also hypothesize that the effects of such specialization on knowledge alliance formation are moderated by technological ties and geographic distance between the dyad involved in the spillover. Our results demonstrate significance for the effects of specialization, supporting learning and appropriation motivations. Technological ties strengthen while geographic distance weakens the relationship between specialization and alliance formation.     

The challenge of constructing regional advantages in peripheral areas: The case of marine biotechnology in Tromsø, Norway

The idea of constructing regional advantage (CRA) has recently been emphasized by scholars as a new way for firms to gain competitiveness in a globalizing learning economy. The rationale behind the idea is that advantages in a regional industry can be constructed by proactive public–private partnership. This article uses, and examines the relevance of, the CRA framework in analysing the development and functioning of the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø, which is a fairly peripheral region in Norway. Despite the fact that much effort has been put into education and R&D at the University of Tromsø and related research institutes, and the fact that many public policy tools have intended to create a blooming marine biotechnology industry in the area, the results have so far been meagre. This article explains the rather weak results in terms of the number of firms and jobs in the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø as being due to a lack of synthetic knowledge on how to industrialize research results and little spillover of market knowledge. With regard to more general theoretical lessons linked to the CRA framework, this article argues for seeing the concept of related variety in a broader industrial and geographical sense in peripheral regions.