Introduction to Biotechnology

In 1919, Karl Ereky, a Hungarian engineer, coined the term biotechnology to describe the interaction of biology and human technology. He envisioned a new era of technology based on using biology to turn raw materials into socially useful products. Nearly a century later, Ereky’s vision is being realized by thousands of companies and research institutions.

Modern biotechnology began in the 1970s in Northern California and has since grown into a worldwide industry. Amgen, founded in 1980, was one of the first companies to realize the new field’s promise by bringing biotechnology medicines to patients.

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BIOFACT:
To bring a new drug to market (from discovery through clinical trials and FDA approval) costs an estimated $1 billion and can take 10 to 15 years or longer.* Only one in 10 new drugs that makes it into human testing actually makes it to market. Given this high failure rate and the tremendous cost of bringing a new therapy to market, companies depend on successful drugs to produce enough revenue to compensate for both the R&D costs of the successful therapies and the expense of failed ones.

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