Professor Jacob Sherkow was featured in a Voices of Biotech leaders profile in Nature Biotechnology. The publication asked a selection of leaders from across biotech to look at the future of the sector and make some predictions for the coming years. Sherkow's response is below:
"The most substantial challenges that lie ahead for new biotechnologies are likely not scientific or technical, but legal. Many new biotechnologies outstrip older regulatory definitions, such as how to categorize n-of-1 therapies. Different countries permit some technologies but not others, leading to difficult issues about biotechnological ‘tourism’. And intellectual property and trade secrecy protections for new biotechnologies present their own difficulties to investment and the public health. Putting these together in a world of massive political and social upheaval, concurrently with skepticism of scientific expertise, presents a challenge to realizing the full benefits of these technologies."
Read the full feature at nature.com.