Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
already ill people, privatized cord-blood banking heralded the start
of the financialization of stem cell biology, such that privately
banking a child's cord blood came to be seen as an investment
designed to secure the future health of the individual's family in case
they got sick (Waldby, 2006).
The rapid growth of cord-blood banking in the 1990s was
followed not long afterwards by the discovery of human embryonic
stem cells. This subsequently resulted in unparalleled expansion of
the market expectations for stem cell technologies, such that a new
global market began to emerge around the idea that stem cells could
be used for an entire range of injuries and illnesses. It is these
expectations about what stem cells might be able to do in the future
that are driving the significant growth in the global market (Brown
and Michael, 2003). Discussed in this chapter is how expectations
about the future of stem cell science are shaped by the desires of
patients to have access to new biomedical technologies. Some
examples of actually existing forms of treatment are also drawn on
to highlight how patients are accessing these emerging therapies.
2.1
Patients drive the market
A primary concern for the developing stem cell industries will be the
extent of market share they are able to generate. This will ultimately
be determined by the number of patients that might be expected to
need new therapies. Crucially, this determination is also a major
issue in shaping exactly which research projects are developed, how
much money is invested and what the returns can be expected to be.
In competitive funding environments, for example, research grants
and programmes are typically built on justifications about the
numbers of individuals within a population likely to be afflicted by
a particular ailment. The situation is also complicated by legislation
in different jurisdictions that encourages investment or philanthropy
in certain areas over others.
The US Orphan Drug Act 1983 is one example of how legislative
parameters can influence the market. The Act was designed to
circumvent the limitations of the traditional pharmaceutical
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