Word: biotechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...years public and private scientists have been racing at a blistering pace to decode our full genetic blueprint, or genome. At times, biotech firms, spurred by dreams of giga-bucks, appeared to be in the lead. But like an Aesopian tortoise, the government scientists working with the Human Genome Project have continued pushing along. In November they announced that they had completed mapping the first billion "letters"--or basic chemical units--in our DNA's alphabet...
Last week at Bio2000, a gathering of more than 10,000 scientists, biotech entrepreneurs and patent attorneys in Boston, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Research Institute, announced another major milestone. In the past four months his international consortium of public- and foundation-funded laboratories, with its robotic machinery knocking off 12,000 units every minute, has decoded another billion letters. That puts the group two-thirds of the way toward its goal of wrapping up the entire genome of 3 billion letters. "We're on the back nine," crowed Eric Lander, director of the Whitehead/M.I.T. Center...
...large industrial park with new and extensively renovated buildings faces industrial warehouses fitted for high-tech and biotech firms...
...improving success rate is bolstering the case for biotech. "More than half of all new drugs approved today are coming out of the biotech sector," says Jim McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter in Berkeley, Calif. Some 350 biotech products are in trials, and more than 100 are on the market. Among recent blockbusters: Herceptin, a breast-cancer treatment from Genentech, and Enbrel, an arthritis medication from Immunex. Yet a few standouts hardly guarantee the success of an entire industry. That's where gene mapping becomes critical...
...bare the road to many powerful new medicines. And I have little doubt that someday they will. Until then, though, we're still dealing with promises. If you're convinced that promises will become profits, by all means invest. But be smart about it. Buy a basket of biotechs, and limit your exposure to 5% of your total portfolio. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting hard for this important industry--almost as hard as I'm rooting for my money. See time.com/personal for more on biotech stocks. E-mail Dan at kadlec@time.com See him Tuesday on CNNfn...