Consumer Controversy and the Funding of Biotechnology Research

Abstract

Manufacturers of the products of biotechnology confront a variety of risks in making decisions regarding how to allocate research and development budgets. This paper explores the importance of one such factor: the prospect of consumer resistance based on real or imagined harms to consumers or the environment, and/or philosophical opposition to particular biotechnologies. A survey of the Canadian biotechnology industry provides evidence that a majority of manufacturers take potential controversies into account in funding decisions. However, even in those industries in which controversies are most likely to arise, potential controversy plays a minor role compared to other determinants of research and development budgets.