09/2022 | 286,400 |
12/2020 | 239,600 |
12/2015 | 156,600 |
12/2010 | 130,000 |
12/2000 | 111,400 |
12/1990 | 107,400 |
* Bureau of Labor Statistics
WHAT THEY MEAN:
It is seventy years since Watson & Crick worked out the DNA molecule’s double-helical structure (1953), fifty since Cohen & Boyer produced the first “recombinant” DNA cell (1972); and 40 since the first biotech medicine launch (human insulin from an E. coli cell, 1982). For 2022, here’s a Food and Drug Administration announcement about a salmon, genetically engineered for rapid growth, which went on sale last year:
“AquAdvantage Salmon has been genetically engineered to reach a growth marker important to the aquaculture industry more rapidly than its non-GE farm-raised Atlantic salmon counterpart. It does so because it contains an rDNA construct that is composed of the growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon under the control of a promoter (a sequence of DNA that turns on the expression of a gene) from another type of fish called an ocean pout. … The salmon cannot be raised in ocean net pens: instead, the approval allows for them to be grown only at specific land-based facilities: one in Canada [Prince Edward Island], where the breeding stock are kept, and Indiana, where the fish for market will be grown out using eggs from the Canada facility. [A third site is getting ready in Ohio.] Both the Canada and Indiana facilities have multiple and redundant physical barriers to prevent eggs and fish from escaping, including metal screens on tank bottoms, stand pipes, and incubator trays to prevent the escape of eggs and fish during hatching or rearing. The tanks also have covers, nets, jump fences, and screened overflow tanks to prevent escape over the sides of the tanks or incubators. The facilities in Canada are indoors. All tank drains and stand pipes have covers or sleeves permanently attached to them. In order to prevent eggs or small fish from passing through the pipes or plumbing, there is a closed septic system and additional screens and chlorine pucks are used to kill any escaped fish or eggs in the main drain area.”
Product of Massachusetts-based AquaBounty, the salmon was the second major biotech fish launch, following the 2005 introduction of Florida-farmed glow-in-the-dark aquarium fish. Both in turn are the output of a U.S. biotech world reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to employ 286,000 R&D scientists, up 45,000 from the BLS’ January 2021 tally and double the 134,000 counted in 2012. The OECD’s most recent measurement of research commitments finds the U.S. contributing about $88 billion of about $115 billion in known private-sector biotech R&D as of 2020. (Note though OECD’s figures don’t include government research, and also don’t try to estimate the possibly substantial R&D commitments in China, India, and Russia.) A quick rundown of current biotech products and plantings:
(1) Medicines: The FDA reports suggest 117 biologic medicines were on the market by 2000 and 334 (if we’re counting correctly) are available now. Roughly speaking, then, the array of biotech medicines grew by about 6 per year from 1980 to 2000, accelerating to about 10 per year since the turn of the century. Examples from the 2022 approval list include a hepatitis C medicine, a blood coagulant, mRNA vaccines, thalassemia, and a relapsed leukemia treatment.
(2) Agriculture: U.S. farmers grow biotech crops on about 175 million acres of farmland, up from 4 million acres in 1995 and accounting for about a third of the world’s 470 million acres of biotech planting. They produce 11 biotech crops — alfalfa, apples, canola, corn, cotton, papaya, pineapples (pink variety), potatoes, soybeans, summer squash, and sugar beets — and U.S. planting has risen from 4 million acres in 1995 to 175 million acres over the last decade, and includes 93% of U.S. corn, 95% of U.S. cotton, and 95% of U.S. soybeans. Worldwide, the U.S. is the largest of 29 biotech producers, accounting for about a third of 470 million acres in world biotech planting as of 2019, according to the most recent count by biotechnology industry group ISAAA.** Latin American countries — Brazil and Argentina in particular — combine for about 206 million acres, with smaller totals (see below) in Canada, India, China, Pakistan, and South Africa. Their initial survey in 2003 found 17 countries and 167 million acres.
* A pig, a rabbit used to produce treatments for hemophilia, a goat, and a chicken along with the AquAdvantage salmon and the aquarium fish.
** “International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications”
A fish –
Producer AquaBounty.
And the FDA’s January 2022 approval note (which follows some litigation).
Data —
OECD stats on private-sector biotech research by country (as noted above, covering OECD members only, meaning no data for China, India, Russia, Brazil, etc.).
U.S. regulators –
The Food and Drug Administration’s biologicals list.
Also from the FDA, a look at agricultural biotech.
And USDA on biotech in American farming.
Agriculture –
An overall summary from ISAAA’s on biotech agriculture worldwide. By their count, eight of the 29 biotech-using countries account for about 93% of world biotech planting (by acreage) in 2019, as follows:
World total | 470 million acres |
U.S. | 170 million acres |
Brazil | 130 million acres |
Argentina | 59 million acres |
Canada | 31 million acres |
India | 29 million acres |
Paraguay | 10 million acres |
China | 8 million acres |
Pakistan | 6 million acres |
All Other | 33 million acres |
A trade dispute: With Mexico raising questions about accepting U.S. biotech corn, a laconic U.S. Trade Representative comment.
A biotech Hawaiian papaya, designed to fend off a virus.
History –
The Chemical Heritage Foundation on Berg, Boyer, Cohen, and the first recombinant DNA experiments in 1971.
And the National Institutes of Health look back at the first biotech controversy (a six-month ban on lab research, imposed by Cambridge (MA) in 1976).
And last –
Designed in Singapore and raised in Florida ponds, “Glofish” are available online at $25-$150 for barbs, danios, miniature sharks, bettas, and tetras in “Electric Green,” “Cosmic Blue,” “Galactic Purple,” “Moonrise Pink,” “Starfire Red,” and “Sunburst Orange”.
The FDA’s comment.
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank Progressive Economy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
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