Word: biotechs
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Argentina is just as sensibly working to cut its dependence on commodities-- the bane of almost every Latin economy. Argentina, which has one of the region's more skilled workforces, recently passed a biotechnology-promotion law to channel incentives to biotech firms. One, Bio Sidus, with $40 million in annual sales, is pioneering an affordable human-growth hormone from the milk of genetically modified calves cloned 60 miles (97 km) from Buenos Aires. "Our traditional cattle-ranching experience gives us a big advantage," says Bio Sidus president Marcelo Argüelles. "But our biggest challenge is obtaining financing at international rates...
Ting's modest credentials didn't bowl over the high-flying venture capitalists at the Singapore government's Economic Development Board (EDB), which is seeking to boost the country's biotech industry. "Nobody bet on us from the government," he says, an account that officials confirm. So, to fund the company that would eventually make the BPro, HealthSTATS International, Ting sold three of the four medical clinics he was running. "Everyone thought I was mad," he says. Ting launched the BPro in Singapore last spring, and is readying its launch in the U.S., where it has been cleared for marketing...
Their company, Aresa, a Copenhagen-based biotech start-up, has genetically modified a common weed called thale-cress so that its leaves turn red when the plant comes in contact with nitrogen dioxide--a compound that naturally leaches into the soil from unexploded land mines made from plastic and held together by leaky rubber seals. Aresa is growing large patches of the stuff on old army shooting ranges that have been seeded with land mines...
Elleholm thinks Aresa will have a reliable land-mine-detecting thale-cress in about two years and hopes to apply similar biotech to detect larger, unexploded ordnance and eventually to cull antibodies from plants. But first it will focus on land mines. If it succeeds, Aresa will make thale-cress a weed that will be welcomed...
...agitators aren’t without their opponents and the most vocal among them has been serial commenter Roy Bercaw. “The only way you’re going to get rid of rodents is to get rid of people and food. If you just allow biotech companies and alcohol in the city, you’ll have no more rodents,” Bercaw said at a council meeting in February. Rats may have an opponent in being the dominant public nuisance issue of the campaign: leaf blowers. “Their particular pitch—irregular...