This study is designed to meet the needs of strategists and long range planners in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and life science industries. It profiles the main commercial applications of biotechnology in health and medicine. Each profile includes an in-depth assessment of the-state-of-the-science, an examination of industry landscape, leading participants, main trends and available strategic options.

The main objective of the study is to help participating companies anticipate how biotechnology might affect their particular business and conceptualize how they can claim or fortify their strategic stake in this highly profitable industry.

Biopharmaceuticals, Gene Therapy, Functional Genomics, Biodiagnostics, Bioinformatics, Pharmacogenomics, Proteomics are just some of the fields profiled in the study.

The study includes an exercise in scenario planning examining the main vectors of change in the industry and ends with the development of three different future scenarios on how the medical biotechnology industry might look like in the year 2010:

1. The Neo-Bioinformational Paradigm "Genes are pure information - information that can be encoded, recorded and decoded, without any degradation or change of meaning". Richard Dawkins - Wired July 95.

Whenever a paradigm changes the whole world changes. Science and business are involved in solving problems within a framework of basic concepts or references. When these references change our way of doing science or business is bound to change.

In this section we explore the bio-informational paradigm, evaluate its utility and assess its impact on the way we do business, on intellectual property laws and on society as a whole. We explore the concepts of evolutionary medicine, increasing return economics, knowledge capital, informationalization of products and services, competing in fast moving markets and other related general concepts regarding doing business and science in the 21st century. This section is of particular interest to CEOs, Chief Strategists and Long Range Planners in the life science industry. It sets the pace for envisioning a new reality that is uprooting conventional ways of doing business.

2. Biopharmaceuticals "Biopharmaceuticals is currently the most commercially successful application of genetic engineering technology." TPS, Biopharmaceuticals Report 1991.

In less than 18 years biopharmaceuticals have grown to a US$16 billion industry and are still going strong. Here we examine the history, concept and basics of biopharmaceuticals. We provide an overview the current scientific and technological landscapes. We analyze the different market/technology segments and study the competitive advantages of the leading players. We forecast how the market will evolve in the next 10 years and evaluate the many windows of opportunities opening in this important market. Two main pressing issues are analysed in depth; super generics and patent rights.

3. Gene Therapy "Except for reports of individual patients being helped, there is still no conclusive evidence that a gene-therapy protocol has been successful in the treatment of a human disease." W. Frech Anderson, Time Magazine January 1999.

Executives at gene therapy companies claim that gene therapy is set to be the next revolutionary therapeutic advance. With clinical trials underway for several diseases ranging from cystic fibrosis to AIDS, this field is full of hype, misinformation and opportunities. Here we examine the basics and the current status of gene therapy, evaluate its commercial potential and highlight some of the strategic opportunities in this field.

4. Genomics "Being able to realise value in the future, by focusing on individualised medicine using a combination of diagnostics and pharma, will depend upon being able to patent new genetic processes." Jonathan Knowles, Hoffmann-La Roche.

The miraculous substance that contains all of our genetic instructions, DNA, is rapidly becoming a key to modern medicine. This marvelous message, evolved over 3 billion years or more, which gives rise to each one of us will guide biological research for years to come and will radically revolutionize the drug discovery process. If you want to be one of the chief innovators in the next century, you need to be on top of genomics and remain aware of it. This section examines the latest techniques in gene decoding and mapping, analyzes the impact of functional genomics on pharmaceutical research and analyzes the competitive landscape in the functional genomics industry. It is of particular interest to R&D directors in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

5. Other Emerging Areas "Every company in the healthcare business is going to have to have bio-technology capabilities just to maintain its position in existing markets" Parker G. Montgomer, CEO Coopers Laboratories, Wall Street Journal 1980.

There are many emerging areas in the field of medical biotechnology that is about to transform the lifescience landscape for good. In this section we examine each and every one of these areas, evaluate the current status of the technology and its commercial potential and predict its impact on healthcare industry landscape . The main areas profiled will include:

Transgenic animals, Cloning, Biochips & DNA probes, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Pharmacogenomics.

6. Strategic Issues and Scenario Planning "I long for an experiment that would examine, by means of electrodes attached to a human head, exaclty how much of one's life a person devotes to the present, how much to memories, and how much to the future." Milan Kundera.

Due to the nature of the R & D process in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, they tend to have a longer time horizon than companies in other sectors. So as we examine the different strategic issues facing our industry we need to peek as far as possible into the future.

Scenarios are memories of the future. They are the most powerful means of visualizing the future during discontinuous times. In this section we perform a PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis) to evaluate the main vectors of change and develop three different scenarios of how the medical biotechnology and healthcare arena might look like in the year 2010. This section is of interest to strategic planning departments in all companies participating in the life science scene.

Who Should Benefit

The study is of particular interest to general managers, strategists, business development managers, and for other strategic brokers involved in the healthcare and life science industries (such as business analysts, venture capitalists and biotechnology marketing directors).

Number of pages: 300+ Publication date: March/April 2000.