TWC Session 6 (Week 6)

Figure 1. DEKA arm
Reproduced from DEKA Research. (n.d.)

Brief Overview/Summary

Prof. started the lesson by emphasizing again on what is the meaning of technology, innovation and sustainable development. So for a recap from my past post, I shall list them down again

• Technology- use of knowledge to solve problems
• Innovation- the application of new technologies or inventions that meet new requirements or existing market needs. (invention is the subset of innovation) 
• Sustainable development- is to be able to maximize current resources for development while not limiting resources for the future

This session we covered the topic on BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare & Biomedical Sciences. So what is BioBusiness? It is defined as a commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. The sectors of BioBusiness are Biomedical(eg. Healthcare, pharmaceuticals);agri-vetenirary(eg. Agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture);environment/industrial(eg. Waste management, bioenergy); other areas(eg. Nanotechnologies on life sciences, bioengineering). We also covered on the  percentage of total BioBusiness market that contributes to the GDP among three regions, South Asia (47.3%), East Asia excluding Japan(33.7%) & USA(32.8%) in 2001 and South Asia had almost half of the region's GDP coming from BioBusiness, from here we can see BioBusiness is emerging. Prof. Shahi's BioBusiness Landscape Model was brought up again as we discussed that the key BioBusiness opportunity areas are potential 'Summit' opportunities. Prof. showed us trends of a rise in patent figures n BioBusiness related innovation from The Coming Biotech Age, Richard Oliver; The US Patent Office, (2000) between 1977-1997 in NCE (New Chemical entity); Microbiologic Innovation (Utilizing bacteria that are useful); Multicellular Organism Innovation (eg. Cloning of animals). Figures from the 5 leading BioTech companies, we see the rise in revenues between 1980-2001 and from two cases above we conclude that new innovations in the life sciences and biotechnology will revolutionize the BioBusiness landscape. Prof. showed us a video on Microsoft's vision of future healthcare (which is under biomedical that is a sector of BioBusiness) which is very futuristic and possible(p.s. the digital wallet is so damn cool!). After that, we covered on key drivers for innovation and change in healthcare which are, demographic and epidemiological(the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health) change (from rural to urban; aging populations; changing patterns of disease);Translating the findings of R&D into clinical and commercial application; Advances in information and bioengineering technology; Changing consumer need, demand and expectations. Then we also see that in first world or well developed countries, there are more chronic diseases (diabetes, high blood pressure etc.) while third world have more communicable diseases (Respiratory infections, HIV etc.) and we see the trends in rise of chronic disease from 1990 & 2020 that Ischaemic Heart disease will be predicted to be the no.1 cause of death or disability, there is no doubt that the rise of childhood and adult obesity are related to this. Currently, India has the most I.H disease patients. Lastly we conclude that we are in the midst of revolution in healthcare and Biomedical science and in the Pharmaceutical industry we faced a challenge in finding different geno-types candidates to create drugs.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

The rise in BioBusiness, being one of the emerging markets.

Key Take Away Points

The rise in BioBusiness is due to the demographic and epidemiological change, translation of R&D findings to clinical application, advances in ICT and bioengineering technology and also the change of healthcare due to the change in consumer need eg. more consumers are now obese and they need a different type of healthcare etc.

Issues for Further Discussion

Personal Ratings for Session

Personally I rate this session 10/10 as I was convinced on how BioBusiness is rising and will become a revolution and all the presenters were well-prepared and engaging.