Dollars for DNA
Biotech finally seems near to living up to its hype
Monsanto has focused on bioengineering agricultural products that improve so-called input traits, which are characteristics that make crops and livestock easier and more economical to grow. The company's improvements on nature, however, haven't always been flawless. Its first bioengineered product, Posilac, a hormone that boosts a cow's milk production, ran into trouble when it was launched in 1994 because it increased udder infections in dairy herds. And consumers weren't eager to buy milk that contained even trace amounts of a hormone that many feared could be harmful. After losing money for several years, Posilac broke even in 1996 and has been profitable since.
The company hopes for greater returns with its Roundup Ready line of soybean, canola, and cotton seeds. These seeds are resistant to Monsanto's own herbicide, Roundup, which is the world's biggest-selling weedkiller. Making crops that are resistant to Roundup will allow farmers to use the herbicide not only before planting but also after the seeds have sprouted. The company is hoping sales of the new seeds, which will command a premium, can offset losses expected when Roundup goes off patent in the United States in 2000.
Super soybeans. DuPont, by contrast, is emphasizing so-called output traits, which are characteristics that make crops healthier, more productive, or tastier. Two years ago, the company bought a 20 percent stake in Pioneer Hi-Bred International, the largest seed manufacturer in the world and a well-established user of biotechnology. DuPont's collaboration with Pioneer has already yielded a bioengineered soybean that's lower in saturated fat. Coming next is a new version of corn and soybeans that will make it easier for livestock to extract phosphorus from their food, thus eliminating the need for farmers to give them supplements. Also in the works are feed corn and soybeans containing more high-quality protein. When fed to livestock, these products will result in cheaper meat that is lower in fat.
DuPont has made a commitment to use biotechnology to make cleaner--perhaps even cheaper--chemicals. Such chemicals could replace oil as the source of raw materials for products like nylon and plastics. Company biologists have also bioengineered a plant that can absorb and break down oil in dirt contaminated, for example, by a spill from an underground tank. DuPont researchers have even spliced a gene from a spider into a bacterium that produces a polymer similar to the spider's web. The polymer could one day be spun into fabric like nylon. "This is not the world of science fiction 10 years down the road; this is now," says Kurt Landgraf, executive vice president for life sciences at DuPont.
At the heart of all these biotech marvels are genes, and that's where outfits like Perkin-Elmer's new venture come in. Called genomics companies, such businesses focus on finding genes, understanding what they do, and selling the information to somebody who wants to exploit it. In the past five years, dozens of genomics firms have sprouted up around the country to supply big drug companies, little biotech start-ups, and agriculture manufacturers with the raw information they need to be able to bioengineer their new products.
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