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Nanotechnology: the next silver bullet?

Article Excerpt
Although predicted by many to be the future of biotech and pharma R&D, investment in nanotechnology has been unexpectedly low so far, with few companies willing to take that financial risk. A focus group has been established in the UK with major industry stakeholders to assess how companies can take on the risk of an unproven technology in a highly regulated industry. The author believes, however, that the successful early adopters of nanotech will reap the rewards.

A number of commentators during the past few years have speculated that nanotechnology is the wave of the future in biotech and pharma. Predictions such as "The market could steeply rise after 2012, reaching potentially $220 billion by 2015 for these nano-enabled compounds" (1) cause companies and their investors to take notice. There is, however, a large disparity between these predictions and the actions of the very companies that are in a position to make them a reality. For example, a Lux Research survey concluded that the pharma industry spends less than 0.5% of its research budget on nanotechnology and that only a sixth of companies had any nanotechnology strategy in place. (2)

Nanotech appears to be following the classic technology adoption curves shown in Figure 1. This shows the bell-shaped Rogers Adoption Curve (3) for any technology, overlaid by the Gartner Hype Cycle, (4) which demonstrates technology acceptance. A new technology creates initial excitement that...

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