Healthcare and Biotechnology

Healthcare and Biotechnology

Readings for this session were, as usual eye- opening ! I’m not sucking up but TWC class is really useful from the business sense, that it opens us our mind’s to a wide array ideas and concepts which present in the world.  What’s the importance of such knowledge in the business sense ?  It gives us the knowledge of what are likely to be the sectors in the world which are possibly going to be future growth drives of the economy, presenting us with some foresight into business opportunities in the investment prospects in the future.

 One of the first  things that stuck me from this chapter was the chart that Proff  displayed, showing the exponential revenue growth of the top 5 biotechnological companies in the US. Being someone who is interested in long term investing, my first reaction to that was : “ oh my goodness! I have to check out that industry when get back home, I see a lot of long run potential for investing in this sector!”  Apart from that I was surprised to find out that bio business accounted for  32.8% of US GDP ! this was indeed  another stunner for me ( although it was mainly due to healthcare )mainly because I tend to focus investing on the leading technological sector in the US . It never did occur that healthcare spending would amount to such a large figure in the USA. Coupled with the changing demographic structure of the USA which is likely to require more health care services in the future, it is my believe that the healthcare and biotech sectors are likely to experience further growth in the future.

Apart from this lessons interesting direct relations with my future fields of interest, the readings in from this chapter also provided an interesting perspective on the concept of Intellectual property rights for farmers. What struck me the most was the argument on why traditional farmers do not get IPR for special species of  crop which the grow on their land, even though they may have been cultivated by  inherited knowledge (of farmers )or communal connection to the land or special crops/ varieties that grow on the land. In sharp Contrast, larger firms, take the same crops ,tweak them under the name and under the name of “innovation” claim patents for their crops!

Lastly an the concept of disruptive innovation was introduced to us in reading four. The concept is indeed very relevant in explaining the process of competition and the need for companies to stay relevant  to the markets they serve. Essentially, the concept of disruptive innovation shows that initially, leaders in a particular industry/ sector will create cutting edge goods that the mass market can enjoy, however, over time the rate of technological advances  for these goods out run the consumers requirements, meanwhile due to technological advances , smaller business set are able to provide the same the services which the consumer actually requires. This ends up disrupting the business of the market leaders  and in cases may end up ending their dominance. This is very useful in illustrating that all business should must not just focus on creating the most technologically  superior products in their field, they have to keep and eye on ensuring that they remain relevant to what is actually being demanded by the markets and provided a cost effective solution to that.

Furthermore, it was argued that the US  healthcare industry needs to under precisely such a shift in order to stay efficient and affordable to it’s citizens. As discussed , Disruptive innovation such as matching the problem of the patient to an appropriate clinicians may indeed yield cost savings, instead of the current “overkill” approach being used now.

Lastly, As a side track from the issues raised during class presentations, a topic that I wished we could have dwelled on would be : When is the line drawn between  providing products for the sake of corporate profit against for the greater wellbeing of society. Should people be denied the right to healthcare just because they are unable to afford it?

Overall the ratings for this class would be: 9/10