Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.4 The limits of commercialization in the stem cell
sciences
While the above list suggests a potentially unlimited commercial
possibility for stem cell products, there are two core limitations that
set the outer limits. These are the size of the potential market and the
relationship between risk and return.
1.4.1 Thesizeofthemarket
As with new pharmaceuticals, the extent of the potential market is
the major factor in determining which kinds of treatments are focused
on and why by emerging stem cell companies. In general terms,
pharmaceutical companies are primarily interested in developing
drugs that affect large numbers of individuals. Moreover, those
individuals are preferably to be found in wealthy countries where
their health insurance or national health systems can afford to pay for
drugs. Key to this model of course is the use of exclusive patent rights
to guarantee income for a certain period of time for the company
which develops the drug before any competitors are allowed to enter
the same market. There are exceptions to this rule for drug
development, for instance: in philanthropic research on diseases that
disproportionately affect people living in poverty; in equity access
programmes run by pharmaceutical companies for people without
health insurance; under the US Orphan Drug Act 1983 which makes
developing drugs for less lucrative but more medically desirable needs
more viable for pharmaceutical companies; or by the granting of
exemptions to patent rights in some jurisdictions.
In an expensive, research-intensive and privatized market, emerging
stem cell companies are increasingly focusing on therapies that could
potentially be administered to a large number of patients who can
afford to pay. With rising rates of obesity-related illnesses, such as
heart disease, diabetes and stroke, and an overall increase in the
general ageing of populations, there is certainly a potentially lucrative
market for stem cell derived treatments related to these issues. The most
promising results so far have come from bone and joint injuries and
