192 RüdigerKunow
TheBiotechIndustrywithinthelast5yearshasseenasignificantinflux
of capital into their firms due to their cutting edge technologies, the
mappingofthehumangenomeandawaveofnewbiologicdrugproduct
approvals by the FDA. This influx of capital, which has come from
venture capitalists, private investors, off balance sheet financial
arrangements,convertibledebtinstruments,alliancerevenueandproduct
sales, has changed the Biotech business model. (United States qtd. in
Kunow,"PreemptiveBiographies"102)The IRS also quotes a Standard and Poor's estimate that aggregate
earnings of the biotech industry are expected to grow at rates of
approximately 25 percent annually. Partly because of new biotech
products, partly because of more stringent medical norms (mentioned
above), the health care market is also expanding by two-digit numbers
(Dumit 45-46, 90). After the bursting of the dot-com and real estate
bubbles and with other insecurities unsettling the market, human life
seems to become one of the few remaining sound investment
opportunities. It is no surprise, therefore, that the Organization for
Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has launched a
proposal, "The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda,"
which is geared towards capturing "the latent value in biological
processes and renewable bio-resources to produce improved health and
sustainable growth and development" (OECD qtd. in Marsden and
Morley216).^39
The new market dynamics of biotech meets an ancient field of
human desire. From very early on in their history, human beings have
tried to modify their biological endowment—through magic, cosmetics,
orothermeans,invasiveorincantational.Whatisdifferenttodayisthat
modificationhasbecomeabiotechnicalfeasibility,orwillsoonbecome
one. Already during the second half of the previous century,
technological apparatuses (such as cardial pacemakers) or new medical
technologies (organ transplants) have begun to challenge previously
(^39) Cf. Nikolas Rose's observation that "the capacities of certain things—such as
organs and tissues—to produce surplus value" has produced a global market in
"biocommodities"("PoliticsofLife"9).