Programme director
Workshop Chair, Professor Jennifer Thomson
Distinguished guests and representatives
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for inviting me to open this important workshop.
Biology is likely to become the greatest single driver of the global economy.
“It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty first century will be the century of biology.”
So wrote Freeman Dyson in the 19 July 2007 issue of the New York Review of Books. Freeman Dyson, the renowned American physicist, is controversial because of his views on global warming, but I think there are many of you here who will agree with him on the future importance of biology or bio-technology.
He says biology is now bigger than physics measured by the size of budgets, the number of people employed and the number of major discoveries. He says biology is more important than physics measured by economic growth, ethical considerations or its ability to overcome poverty (the promotion of human welfare).
Because of this, he goes on to predict that the domestication of biotechnology will dominate our lives during the next fifty years at least as much as the domestication of computers has dominated our lives during the previous 50 years.
Food, clothing, shelter, fuel, health, these are the main sectors in which biotechnology will make the 21st century its own.
For millions of years we used wood and charcoal fossil fuels to make fire to cook our food and to warm our homes. For millions of years burning fossil fuels did not damage our environment. It does now. And now biotech gives us a way of averting a catastrophe. Our future energy will be green and safe.
Biotechnology will probably develop most rapidly and significantly in the field of health. We are only beginning to see what can be done through gene therapy.
Biotechnology will affect every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat to the materials we use, to the energy we consume, and to our health. No other single technology has or will have such far-reaching consequences.
This sector has grown phenomenally in the last ten years. However, the seeds were planted even earlier.
For example, 30 years ago manufacturing in North Carolina meant textiles and furniture. That was the old economy. Then the state began to invest in biotechnology. North Carolina now has more than 54,000 people working for some 500 biotech companies. It is the third largest biotechnology centre in the country, after California and Massachusetts. The aggregate economic impact, according to one report, is almost $46 billion a year.
Similarly, Brazil leads the world in biofuels and preventing citrus diseases, thanks to R&D programs launched decades ago. Japan leads in fermentation technologies and is growing plastic car parts from bacteria and plants.
Singapore considers life sciences a vital part of its development strategy and invests hundreds of thousands of US dollars in each of its graduate students.
China is building a genome city while the United Arab Emirates attempts to use scale and petrodollars to leapfrog everyone. For now, the United States remains, by far, the leader in R&D and new venture creation, but there is much debate over whether it will be able to maintain this lead.
Between 2000 and 2007, biotech revenues added more than $100 billion to the United State (US) economy, representing 2.5 percent of US Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth. This was accomplished by a biotech workforce of only about 250,000 people, less than one-sixth of 1 percent of the national workforce.
This raises the question. Are there jobs in bio-tech? Are there jobs for South Africans in the future? Are there more jobs in the new economy than in the old? I know that there are commissioned papers for this workshop or papers that will be discussed at this workshop and that is one of the questions raised and answered there. In my view it is the absolutely critical question to ask.
The South African biotechnology sector is simply too small.
These are old numbers, but to give you some idea of the size of the South African sector in world terms, in 2003 the United State of America (USA) led the world with US$50 billion (at PPP rates) while South African sales were US$290 million. Half of our biotech firms were in the health sector, followed by agro-food (19 percent) and then industry-environmental (15 percent).
The sector is simply too small, Jo Lorentzon of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) tells us, to exhaust the pool of graduates, be they those already on the labour market or those still in training.
This is a sector that we have to build and grow.
South Africa has long recognised the importance of a successful biotechnology industry. The national biotechnology strategy was published as long ago as 2001 and in 2007, in ten-year innovation plan we settled on an ambitious vision.
We want to make South Africa one of the top ten nations in the world in terms of the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, flavour, fragrance and biopesticide industries by 2018.
We are committed to this vision.
Structures have been established across the country in order to enhance biotechnology research and innovation. Four of the most important of these are CapeBiotech, BioPAD, LIFElab and PlantBio, referred to collectively as the Biotechnology (Regional) Innovation Centres. All of these structures will soon be migrating to the recently established Technology Innovation Agency or TIA.
The Technology Innovation Agency, (TIA) will improve coordination and allow an integrated approach for the promotion of innovation, including in biotechnology.
TIA has been established as a public funding agency that will ensure that local research and development is converted into commercial products and services.
Its primary objectives are to stimulate the development of technology-based products, services and enterprises; develop a technology base for the South African economy and facilitate the development of human capital for innovation. At the beginning of the month we inducted TIA’s board members a group of people with the skills, experience and drive to take TIA far.
Various other organisations and programmes are active in funding research and development, building research capacity and transferring technology, although not for biotechnology alone.
The National Research Foundation is the major body responsible for funding research and human resource development at higher education institutions, national institutions and other councils. It administers the Innovation Fund, which will move to the TIA next year. In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology and human resources for industry programme provide funding to innovative research programmes that involve an industry partner.
Taken together, these initiatives will help us achieve several important objectives for South Africa and the region, such as the development of therapies for AIDS, TB and other diseases.
The heavy burden of disease in our region gives our search for biotechnology solutions added impetus. The development of research and innovation platforms and programmes will facilitate rapid drug discovery, rational drug design and development, the validation of traditional therapies, and advances in diagnostics, genomics and proteomics, which will, we hope, help us produce radical and affordable treatments and cures.
Another area of biotechnology that requires debate and policy is that of genetically modified crops. South Africa has not fully discussed thus science and we need to do so.
Another area of focus that has received specific attention in recent years is the exploitation of South Africa’s indigenous knowledge to, amongst others, develop medicinal products from plants.
South Africa is rich in biodiversity and the government has initiated programmes for the development of medicines based on traditional remedies. Already, we have initiated four bio-prospecting and product development flagship projects on traditional medicines, cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals and ceramics and registered a Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems degree, the first of its kind in the world.
A related area of critical interest for the department is intellectual property, arguably the cornerstone of the life sciences sector. The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research Bill was signed into law last year, clarifying the ownership of intellectual property arising from research and development carried out using public funds and ensuring that intellectual property emanating from publicly financed research is protected and commercialised for the benefit of all South Africans.
This piece of legislation gives the country’s knowledge generating institutions clear guidance on how best to manage intellectual property that has commercial potential and how to make sure it gets out into the marketplace and is used to benefit South Africans.
The legislation also provides for the establishment of the national intellectual property management office, which will be responsible for the establishment of offices of technology transfer at higher education institutions.
The act helps to create an enabling environment for the innovation our country needs to become globally competitive.
Public equity markets are now less welcoming to biotechnology companies
Despite the tremendous progress that has been made, not only in South Africa but worldwide, the biotechnology sector still faces some challenges in the months and years ahead.
For instance, the 2008 Ernst and Young global biotechnology report notes the impact of the global credit crunch on the biotechnology sector. Public equity markets have become less welcoming to biotechnology companies, leading many companies to cancel their first sale of stock to the public or IPO’s. There has also been a global slump in the market capitalisation of listed companies and many companies are facing difficulties in raising capital in such a risk adverse environment.
Science, technology and innovation tend to advance much faster than the general public understanding of the issues or the government’s.
For example, the scientific, legal, and ethical issues related to embryonic stem cell research and cloning technologies have generated considerable media and public attention in the past few years. Stem cell research has the potential to provide cures for several currently incurable diseases and tissue injuries. However, it has raised intense ethical, legal and policy debates.
Any proposed regulation of this research would have to find a way to navigate these issues and would have to be framed in such a manner as to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks associated with the research.
In conclusion, it is safe to say the recent emphasis on biotechnology in South Africa is beginning to pay dividends. Although the development of a sustainable and vibrant biotechnology industry remains a complex task and although the global biotechnology environment is highly competitive, we are confident that South Africa will be successful.
It is important that all our stakeholders work together constructively and this National Biotechnology workshop provides us with the opportunity to do precisely that. I hope it will be a great success.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
23 July 2009
