This conference call followed the release of Part I of the bio-era report series Agricultural Biotechnology at the Crossroads: The Changing Structure of the Industry. The call discussed global stakeholders in agricultural biotechnology, recent changes in industry regulations both in the U.S. and globally, new technologies, and intellectual property and legal issues. Over 100 individuals were on the call representing various institutions worldwide, including biotech and agrochemical companies, government institutions (including the European Commission and the U.S Senate Agriculture Committee), non-profit groups, research organizations and universities.

Key questions to be answered:

• What recent news developments, both in the U.S. and worldwide, are significant indicators to some recent shifts in stakeholder positions?
  
  
• What is the time horizon for core technologies going off patent and what opportunities will this open up?
  
  
• What products are in the development pipelines of the major players in the agricultural biotechnology industry?
  
  
• What steps are necessary to break the logjam and accelerate the acceptance of new agricultural biotechnologies?
  
  
• What are the consumer attitudes in the U.S., Europe and worldwide regarding biotech products and how do these impact industry development and direction?

Who will benefit from this research?

• Agricultural biotechnology and farm sector industry executives
  
  
• Farmers, food processors and others in the commercial food supply chain
  
  
• Consumer environmental groups, universities and other public-sector research programs evaluating genetically engineered products
  
  
• Federal, state and international agencies involved in legislating, regulating and enforcing regulations surrounding genetically modified organisms and other biotechnological applications

Speakers:

Thomas Cromartie,Chief Technology Officer - Biotix

Juan Enriquez, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project

Gregory Graff, PhD, Director of Research, bio-era

Thomas Hoban, Professor of Sociology and Food Science, North Carolina State University

James Newcomb, Managing Director, Research, bio-era

Excerpt from the Executive Summary

At universities, sponsored research and technology transfer has slowed in agbiotech relative to other areas, according to Alan Bennett of the University of California, because smaller companies often do not have affordable access to complementary technologies required for freedom to operate...

As competition shifts down stream from research tools and general methods, to competition in specific product markets, higher value output products are likely to become more important in the industry. The future is likely to bring...

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