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There are more than 300 biotech drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials targeting more than 200 diseases, including various cancers, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and arthritis.
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Biotechnology is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood supply safe from the AIDS virus and detect other conditions early enough to be successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic products.
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Consumers already are enjoying biotechnology foods such as papaya, soybeans and corn. Biopesticides and other agricultural products also are being used to improve our food supply and to reduce our dependence on conventional chemical pesticides.
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Environmental biotechnology products make it possible to clean up hazardous waste more efficiently by harnessing pollution-eating microbes without the use of caustic chemicals.
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Industrial biotechnology applications have led to cleaner processes that produce less waste and use less energy and water in such industrial sectors as chemicals, pulp and paper, textiles, food, energy, and metals and minerals. For example, most laundry detergents produced in the United States contain biotechnologybased enzymes.
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DNA fingerprinting, a biotech process, has dramatically improved criminal investigation and forensic medicine, as well as afforded significant advances in anthropology and wildlife management.
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As of Dec. 31, 2003, there were 1,473 biotechnology companies in the United States, of which 314 were publicly held.
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Market capitalization, the total value of publicly traded biotech companies (U.S.) at market prices, was $311 billion as of early April 2005.
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The biotechnology industry has mushroomed since 1992, with U.S. health-care biotech revenues increasing from $8 billion in 1992 to $39 billion in 2003.
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The U.S. biotechnology industry employed 198,300 people as of Dec. 31, 2003.
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Biotechnology is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world. The U.S. biotech industry spent $17.9 billion on research and development in 2003.
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The top five biotech companies spent an average of $101,200 per employee on R&D in 2002.
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The biotech industry is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
