THE NEXT WAVE IN BIOPHARMACEUTICALS

Abstract

SINCE ITS DAWNING IN THE EARly 1980s, the biopharmaceutical industry has been characterized by large, slow-moving waves of new technologies coming to market. The first, consisting of vaccines and recombinant protein therapies, was followed by a monoclonal anti-body wave, which after 12 years is now the dominant force bringing new biotech drugs to market. On the horizon, however, there are several crests. The sea, in fact, is becoming rather choppy as the next wave in biotech shapes up to include a spate of new technologies ranging from gene therapy and cell-signaling drugs to new twists on vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that are moving into advanced clinical trials and onto the market. At the BIO 2005 convention in Philadelphia in June, for example, there was a palpable sense that biotechnology, long perceived as falling short on its promise of breakthrough drugs, is about to deliver. Companies that only a few years ...