ABSTRACT
We are living through a scientific revolution. It relates to bioscientific research and commercialisation and promises to have far-reaching effects in a number of areas of social and economic life, most notably that concerning human healthcare. This is the focus of the present chapter. That is not to say that the impact of the ‘molecular biology’ revolution on agro-food and environmental treatments arising from biotechnology is not important. It may be more so if it brings major improvements to food, energy and environmental quality and cleanliness. But for the moment, biopharmaceuticals is widely accepted to be the most dynamic application arising from new bioscience, not least because of the possibilities of contributing dramatically to the curing of such highly complex, intellectually challenging and medically exacting diseases as cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory ailments. In relation to the health ‘value chain’, this represents, according to some estimates, up to one-sixth of GDP in an advanced health economy like the USA (Cassidy, 2002).
