Thread by @NoubarAfeyan

Permission to leap: Welcoming biotech’s moment - A thread 👇 #JPM2021 #biotechmoment

flagshippioneering.com/stories/permis…

Nearly 40 years after the first biotechnology companies began applying primitive genetic engineering techniques to bacteria and producing human proteins as therapeutics, the power of modern biotechnology is now on full display.

Once defined by endless experimentation and expensive and low probability-of-success drug development, biotech is at the leading edge, fusing rapidly advancing molecular science with a deterministic path to products and impact.

We've come a long way. We've learned about the human genome, its variations, and about bacterial species that occupy our gut affecting health & disease. We've learned to read, edit, write & regulate genomes--unimagined 5 yrs ago.

We are entering a new era of programmable medicines; they offer the possibility of fusing digital technologies with biotechnology to accelerate and increase the impact of new medicines, tackling everything from COVID to cancer.

These developments have given all of us in the field – permission to leap. Today, leaps to whole new fields and approaches are driven by the confidence borne of new knowledge, experience, capital, and capabilities.

Global need has also demanded we summon the courage to leap. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer, Alzheimer’s or other devastating diseases afflicting the planet, the urgent need to find cures or prevention requires big breakthroughs, like mRNA vaccines.

This is biotech’s moment to maximize its societal impact by continuing to make leap after leap: dramatically improving human health, global nutrition, and the sustainability of our planet demands that we do so.