Bio-scenarios: The Future Impacts of Developments in the Life Sciences

Monday 27th October, 11.30 – 13.00: Lecture Theatre Session

Organiser: Professor Joyce Tait, Innogen

Six years ago when the Genomics network was set up, we speculated that the life sciences promise to shape the technology trajectory of the 21st century, providing one of the main platforms of economic growth and enabling the EU to compete effectively in global markets. Since then, the life sciences themselves have indeed made spectacular progress in areas such as stem cells, bio-informatics/systems biology, pharmaco-genomics, nano-biotechnology, translational medicine, synthetic biology/genomics. However, there is a prevailing sense that this progress in building the knowledge base has not delivered good value for money in terms of profitable life science developments and is not ‘refreshing’ R&D pipelines to the extent that was initially predicted. An important strand of research in the Genomics Network is studying the factors underlying these expectations and outcomes, and the role of the policy environment in facilitating change.

This session will thus take a constructive look at the constraints inhibiting the commercial development of life science innovations, how companies are adjusting their innovation strategies to capitalise more effectively on new biotechnology developments, and how policy and other initiatives that could potentially ‘free up’ the innovation potential of the life sciences. Among other things, it will draw on ideas developed for a recent OECD*scenario report.

*Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development