SAN DIEGO, Calif. — New biotechnology innovations are so expensive and face so many regulatory challenges that even the giant developers need to work together to get them done.
“We need to work more as a collective in how to move,” biotechnology developer Steven Webb of Dow AgroSciences told the Canola Council of Canada’s annual convention in San Diego.
Webb said canola innovations face challenges because of crop is “medium-sized.”
A new agricultural technology tends to take 10 to 13 years and $140 to $240 million to develop, while new chemicals take 10 years and $236 million and new crop traits take 13 years and $150 million.
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That’s a lot of money, time and commitment, especially with the risks of failure, Webb said.
He said companies are spreading out the risk and making complicated developments more feasible by collaborating with public sector researchers, smaller and larger private sector companies, end users and others who can help develop part of a new product system.
“These relationships are productive when they are collaborative,” said Webb. “Open and frequent communications” are key to keeping players happy.
He said people must build trust with partners so that long-term, multi-product relationships can develop.
Webb said agriculture biotech companies could probably learn a lot from the pharmaceutical industry, especially in avoiding “late stage failures,” in which a product is abandoned after years of development “after I’ve spent $50, $60 million to get a product down a path.”
The pressures on biotech companies can be seen in the mega mergers of the past couple of years, as well as the inter-company and public-private collaborations that tackle product development.
ed.white@producer.com
