Welcome to the New Biology Economy

Dear readers,

Welcome to the the first online publication devoted to covering the New Biology Economy, the emerging global lifesciences marketplace.

What is the New Biology Economy? It is the commerce that is developing from the progress made in molecular and cellular biology and building on the sequencing of the human genome.

This is not a scientific journal, nor a market vehicle for the big companies. It is one journalist's approach to carving a path through the complex ecology of finances, technology transfer, globalization, intellectual property, scientific progress, management, culture change, and hype as this market builds.

I have covered the world of biotechnology for the last three years as an editor for a subscription-based New York-based trade publication and prior to that I was one of the first journalists to apply my trade to the Internet as a New York-based reporter covering information technology, and specializing in electronic commerce.

There is a new marketplace forming in the life sciences arena, following the work that was done in sequencing the human genome. That tremendous effort created the genomics market, but also sowed the seeds for a new market, which I call the New Biology Economy. This market is a chain stretching from the wet labs of academia and government on one end, to pharma on the other, involving healthcare, innovation, information technology, intellectual property, and changing the cultures of business and discovery. The sequencing of the human genome not only provided an incredible array of data not available before, it also told us there is so much we don't know. Now, science is moving to organize new methods of discovery and this shift will have consequences throughout the economic value chain.

There is daily evidence that the life-sciences business is becoming more collaborative, and that mergers and acquisitions are the lifeblood of the market on the end closest to commercialization. On the discovery side, science must learn how to operate in multidisciplinary teams and how to reward such efforts and then transfer the fruits of research smoothly to commercialization. We will look at that world daily.

I believe in this day and age that online information must be offered freely, that journalism should be transparent and accountable, and that there are ways to create information-based marketplaces that are financially beneficial -- and available to all.

I look forward to covering this market on a daily basis, and to interacting with those interested in this area. The comment space is open and we have a selection of recent postings available in the archives for browsing.

Mo Krochmal