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14 April 2003
World Famous Scottish Biotechnology sold
off to the States due to lack of funding
and management resources
Dr James Irvine
FRSE, DSc, FRCPEd, FRCPath, FInstBiol
Teviot Scientific Consultancy, Edinburgh
Teviot Agriculture, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie, Perthshire
(Filed 14 April 2003)
©www.land-care.org.uk
Dolly the sheep may be world famous and earned
a place in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh,
but this has not saved the biotechnology that lead to this world
class success being sold off to the States (1,
2). The reason given is on account of lack of funding
and management resources, necessitating the Scottish Company based
at Roslin near Edinburgh (PPL Therpeutics plc) to focus their future
activities solely on protein based therapeutics.
The Scottish Executive has been trumpeting the
need for the development in Scotland of high quality technology,
while regretting the egress from Scotland of multinationals some
of whom have decided that it is is better for them to take their
high tech development initiatives elsewhere.
Scottish Enterprise through its Biotechnology
Group is supposed to be the main Government Agency promoting the
growth of biotechnology in Scotland. Yet the first speaker at the
Scottish Countryside Alliance Conference last week (Professor Derek
Reid, University of Abertay, Dundee, an experienced businessman)
stated categorically that in his view Scottish Enterprise had been
a failure over the last 10 years. He also stressed the dire state
of the Scottish economy compared to that of England and indeed of
other small countries within Europe. His views were recently reported
when he was the subject of a business profile (3).
Bill Jamieson's article “Why Scottish Enterpirse just isn’t
working” makes alarming reading (4).
On contacting the Scottish Enterprises Biotechnolgoy
Group press office, they stated that they could not comment until
after the election on May 1st as Scottish Enterprise is a Government
Agency and cannot make statements when the Scottish Parliament is
dissolved. This absurd example of postured political correctness
is difficult to understand with regard to an event that had happened,
and had been flagged up over the past year as likely to happen.
Is the excuse of political correctness used in
relation to a question about a past major event simply to enable
the politicians to put spin on the response to an entriely predictable
enquiry? Presumably the Biotechnology Group of Scottish Enterprise
must have had a view about it, and that view must have been formulated
while the Scottish Parliament was sitting. Scottish Enterprise have
kindly offered to meet with me next week at a time to be arranged.
In finishing it is sad to reflect that to date
no UK Company could compete to produce a competent postmortem test
for BSE in cattle - something that is now in three varieties of
EC approved commercial kits and extensively used throughout Europe
(5). The UK as it dispenses with the over thirty
months slaughter scheme for cattle will shortly have to follow suit
involving vast numbers of cattle, but pay other countries for their
expertise and commercial enterprise. What indeed is happening to
UK Biotechnology?
Dr James Irvine
© www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. PPL spins off cloning business.
The Courier, 11 April 2003.
(Filed 14 April 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click here to view).
2. Dey, Iain (2003). Scott: PPL
still short of cash despite venture deal. The Scotsman, Friday 11
April 2003.
(Filed 14 April 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click here to view).
3. Beach, Andrew (2003). A Profile
of Professor Derek Reid. Tourism's maverick is getting back to basics
BUSINESS IN PERSON. The Scotsman, 11th April 2003.
(Filed 14 April 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click
here to view).
4. Jamieson, Bill (2003). Why
Scottish Enterprise just isn't working. The Scotsman, 7 March 2003.
www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?id=277432003&tid=595
5. Moynagh J. and Schimmel, H.
(1999). Tests for BSE evaluated. Nature, 400: 105.
(Download
PDF). Reproduced with permission.
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