Life sciences may hold first nanotech blockbuster
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - March 13, 2006
by Chinh H. Pham
A significant source of innovation in the recent past originated from the molecular-centric domains relating to biology, biotechnology and other life sciences. Nanotechnology, similarly, has some of the common denominators. In particular, nanotechnology is molecular-centric, and like the others, nanotechnology has significant opportunities converting from innovation to commercial success.
Within the past few years, there has been a noticeable increase in nanotechnology-related activities in the life sciences. A combination of factors can be attributed to producing this synergy, including certain visible commercial successes for nanotechnology, intense patent competition, focused governmental initiatives and the general buzz about nanotechnology and the potential for life-science applications. As a note, 40 percent of nanotechnology venture capital since 1998 has gone to life-science startups.
Patent trends
Generally, a trend in innovation and commercial success can be assessed, to a certain extent, through the observation of the patent system.
A brief look at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent database shows that in the past few years there has been a dramatic rise in nanotechnology-related patents in certain areas of the life sciences -- for example, nucleic acids and pharmaceuticals.
Likewise, in a comparison of nanotechnology-related patents based on the type of application, 11 percent of all nanotechnology-related patents issued by the patent office involved some type of medical application, including drug delivery, diagnostics, drugs, biologics, nanoemulsions, cosmetics, nanoshells, nanopores, nanocapsules and quantum dots.
Federal funding trends
In addition to patent data, it has been observed that federal funding in the Untied States for nanotechnology R&D has also increased substantially since the inception of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, from about $464 million in 2001 to about $1 billion in 2005.
The National Institutes of Health counts nanomedicine as one of its top five priorities. The National Cancer Institute is committing $144 million to nanotechnology research in 2006 (up more than $2 million from 2005), while the National Science Foundation is allocating about $50 million of its 2006 nanotechnology budget to biological sciences (also up about $2 million from 2005).
The NSF recently noted that a substantial amount of its grants in the life sciences have been awarded to companies focusing on: diagnostic imaging, chemical/biosensors, cell tracking, DNA sequencing, biomolecule imaging and artificial bone materials.
Commercial trends
Similar to the funding trends by the NSF, it has been observed that significant innovations, as well as commercial activities, have come from such areas as nano-enabled drug delivery for pharmaceutical and medical applications. The use of nanoparticles, nanoemulsion and other nanoscale materials for drug delivery is widely expected to become a multibillion-dollar business over the next decade. These delivery systems are rapidly emerging to address multiple challenges, including disease targeting, solubility, bioavailability, toxicity reduction, cost-reduction and life-cycle extension.
Another area where there has been a significant amount of activity is medical diagnostics. More recently, the trend has been the advancement and application of nanotechnology toward integrated devices that can incorporate onto a chip multiple fluidic assay functions, such as separation, metering, resuspension, fluid transport and detection. These chips could soon compete in routine applications with macroscale test devices.
Application of nanotechnology to biomedical imaging has also been increasing in recent years. Nanoscale technology has already afforded the ability for intracellular imaging. The current drive to improve techniques that can enhance spatial resolution at the molecular level to detect early biological markers can lead to early diagnosis, more accurate characterization of diseases, and perhaps opportunities in drug discovery.
Nanosensors make up another area that can open broad opportunities in many areas of life sciences, including biotechnology and medicine. These sensors either use nanomaterials as the sensing material or nanoelectronics to reduce the size and cost of the device to provide a higher level of functional integration. A recent study indicates that the market for biomedical sensors is expected to reach around $800 millions in 2008 and $1.2 billions by 2012.
The impact of nanotechnology in the life sciences is likely to be very broad. Also impressive is that many of the areas mentioned are close to or at the point of marketing. Life sciences will be one of the first true nanorelated markets to evolve, and the opportunities and revenues that can be generated will be quite significant.
Chinh H. Pham is an intellectual property attorney in the Boston office of law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP. He can be reached at phamc@gtlaw.com. |
