Objective
This project is designed to assess the current competitiveness of Europe's gene therapy industry, examine the extent to which the European science base in this area is being industrially exploited and suggest how public policy might help overcome the main barriers to the commercialisation of gene therapy research in Europe.
Gene therapy promises to be one of the most important developments in medicine during the next decade. It is a radical new technology which uses DNA as a therapeutic agent to either correct the genetic defects that cause a particular illness, or to help restore normal functions to diseased cells. Already the first clinical trials have indicated that gene therapy techniques might be successfully used to treat not only genetic disorders, such as Cystic Fibrosis, but also some of the most important and intractable non-genetic diseases, ranging from AIDS to cancer.
In 1996 an EC supported project, 'The Development of Gene Therapy in Europe and the United States: A Comparative Analysis' found that the key difference between Europe and the US was the extent to which this important new technology was being industrially exploited. In particular, the authors identified the existence of a 'commercialisation gap' between academia and industry in Europe. Overall Europe had a strong and competitive science base in gene therapy, but the commercial potential of this research was not being fully realized.
These earlier findings established a clear agenda for further research rather than analysing why this European 'commercialisation gap' existed. As a consequence there is a pressing need to explore this issue in more detail. The objectives of the project are therefore to:
1. Update the previous study by assessing the current competitiveness of the European gene therapy industry compared to the US and examining if it is catching-up or falling behind;
2. Examine the extent to which the European science base related to gene therapy is being commercially exploited and analyse the main barriers preventing the effective transfer of technology from academia to industry; 3. Describe the current initiatives that are being taken by European governments to stimulate the exploitation of the science base in gene therapy and suggest how public policy might be used to bridge the commercialisation gap.
The work programme follows directly from these three goals and will be divided-up into the following activities:
- Review of the gene therapy industry in Europe and the US;
- Survey of the scientific members of the European Working Group on Human Gene Transfer and Therapy;
- Telephone interviews with a sample of European scientists working with industry;
- Interviews with European firms working on gene therapy;
- Review of public European programmes promoting gene therapy and the exploitation of the science base.
The study will conclude by making a judgement about the relative success or failure of the various policies adopted by different countries to commercialize gene therapy. Recommendations will be made aimed at improving the exploitation of the science base in gene therapy and other novel biotechnologies throughout Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political policies public policies
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology genetic engineering gene therapy
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases RNA viruses HIV
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
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Coordinator
BN1 9RF Falmer - Brighton
United Kingdom
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