SFI awards for two leading research projects at DCU
26 January 2004

Animal cell biotechnology is a crucial component of the biopharmaceutical industry, and of many of the fields of scientific research which underpin it. Production of recombinant proteins in most instances depends on cell culture technology, as do cell therapy/tissue engineering. Discovery of new molecular targets for treatment of many diseases involves research at the interface between cell and molecular biology. In spite of this pivotal role, however, animal cell culture technology is still largely empirically-based and, - except for application of gene cloning technology to recombinant protein production - has not substantially exploited the recent explosion in genomics and molecular biology.

Exploiting the revolution in cell and molecular biological knowledge to make biopharmaceutical processes more efficient is not merely a luxury in order to generate more profit; it is actually essential for the health and long-term survival of the biopharmaceutical industry and for its contribution to human welfare and to the economy. Biotechnology is generating a rapidly-increasing number of biological therapeutics which can have a real impact on quality and length of life for patients with a wide variety of diseases, but these treatments --and long-term treatment is often required - are very expensive; for patients with chronic disease, an annual cost in the region of €30,000-€50,000 is not uncommon. The price must cover research and development costs, profit, and production costs. It will become increasingly difficult for the State or Health Insurance Companies to underwrite these costs, as more and more therapeutic agents come onto the market. This will mean that some treatments may be available only to the very wealthy - this is socially undesirable and divisive, and is also limiting in terms of market size. While, of course, there are many factors involved in pricing policy, (not all of them science and technology-based) one major contribution to addressing this problem would be to improve the efficiency of the production process. Availability of profitable, but accessibly-priced, biopharmaceuticals must be a primary goal for long-term health of this industry".