The Convergence of Disruptive Technologies Enabling a New Industrial Approach to Health Products - Science & Cents conference 2002 - FRB Dallas

have prepared this talk to cover two areas. First, I want to present a convergence of disruptive technologies that are driving new therapeutics. I will then finish with the situation in the state of Texas with regard to the traction we have in biotechnology, the companies being created, and what strength our academic community is providing to stimulate the initiative. Bear with me for a moment while I create a yachting analogy for the biotech industry. The Vendee custom yacht is a single-person-managed yacht with a maximum speed of about 35 knots and the capacity to go nonstop around the world. In the Vendee race, it goes south, following a southern arch. This is the same arch undertaken at the turn of the century by Shackleton, who needed twenty-four months and a substantial crew. The difference between the experiences early in the century and the experiences with the Vendee Great South Yacht Race is the difference in technologies, which enables a single individual to achieve the objective. My message is that technology empowers. It is the focus on new technology by biotechs that allows them to sail faster than large pharmaceutical firms. The Vendee race also has some good analogies to business. Let me illustrate. Four yachts were sunk. Three were sunk under conditions in which they had full appreciation of conditions and their position. The fourth yacht knew where it was but not the surrounding conditions. It had lost its technology and thus was unable to estimate the surrounding conditions. There were two categories of rescuers for these failing yachts. There was the individual, high-tech rescuer, as illustrated by Peter Gross, who found the failing boat in the vast southern ocean. He utilized GPS technology and had full knowledge of the conditions surrounding both single-man boats. In the second