Word: biotechs
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...chief execs of leading U.S. agri-biotech companies had heartburn last week, it wasn't because of anything they ate. Rather, it was that long-simmering European anxieties over genetically modified (g.m.) crops, like an ocean-hopping virus, had finally spread...
...last spring that, at least in the lab, pollen from g.m. corn can kill the butterfly's caterpillars. Not to be left out, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman was said to be considering the appointment of a panel of experts to advise him on the pros and cons of biotech. And in the surest sign of shifting political winds, a bipartisan group of 20 members of Congress introduced legislation requiring labeling of all genetically engineered food...
With billions of dollars at risk, the biotech industry has begun to fight back, forming corporate alliances and launching a major p.r. effort that includes lobbying, new research efforts to still public fears and TV, radio and newspaper ads. It is also beginning to listen more. "To brush off concern [about g.m. crops] as unfounded is to be arrogant and reckless," says DuPont ceo Charles Holliday Jr. And even though it gave FrankenTony the cold shoulder, Kellogg's is already phasing out genetically modified products in Europe--not, it insists, for safety reasons but just to please consumers...
Like a lot of folks, Levy had never heard of macular degeneration. Unlike most, she was in a position to do something about it. One of the co-founders of a biotech company called QLT PhotoTherapeutics, Levy worked with David Dolphin of the University of British Columbia to develop Visudyne, a drug that uses light rays to combat the severest form of the disease. Although their research couldn't help Levy's mother, who died in 1996, it has passed muster with a scientific advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Last week the panel recommended that...
Fears like this can translate directly into poor market performance. Disastrous sales in the European market may have scared some sense into the biotech companies, but their new p.r. campaigns may be a few bushels shy of a load. "It could be too late for them in Europe," Kluger says. "Now, these companies are just trying to save the game...