Global BioBusiness Opportunities and Challenges

Please feel free to share your views on opportunities and trends in industrial biotechnology : What do you consider to be the most exciting technologies? Are there any industrial biotechnology partnering opportunities you want to share? Are there interesting industrial biotechnology investment opportunities you want to introduce?

Given growing interest in the bio arena as an engine for economic and social development, many countries around the world are seeking to establish and grow viable and sustainable bio-sectors. Much investment has gone into setting up and nurturing so-called biobusiness/biotech "hotspots" or clusters - each typically involving an ecosystem of start-up enterprises and support service companies built up around academic and research centers of excellence. As it is, there are already at least 5000 biotech enterprises around the world, and well over 300 "hotspots" and "hotspot-wannabes". Will we be able to sustain so many biotech companies and hotspots around the world? Or will we inevitably see a blood-bath and possible consolidation of firms through M&A activity? Will all established and emerging hotspots/clusters survive, or are some likely to end up as economic white elephants? What, in your opinion, are the characteristics that will separate the winners from the losers and the living dead?

A forum to discuss the potential of new technologies and innovations to replace our unhealthy over-dependence on fossil fuels and help ensure sustainability...