Demand for Medicine Spurs a Biotech Future

“Biotech Promises Renewed Signs of Life” (James Flanigan, Feb. 2) is a very revealing portrait of this new, struggling industry.

Flanigan hits the nail on the head when he references the aging population in industrial countries and the AIDS pandemic in Africa and elsewhere as a clarion call for the need for new medicines.

Science is indeed meeting demographics. A domestic example of science meeting demographics is the inner-city biotech center I developed in Roxbury, Mass., in the late 1980s. With Boston University Medical Center as the anchor tenant as well as commercial biotech incubator space in this facility located in a predominantly African American community, we saw advances made in the treatment of sickle cell anemia and in congestive heart failure among African American males.

After developing this biotech center I had predicted that an effective treatment modality for AIDS would come from this facility. It was not coincidental to me that advances for sickle cell anemia and congestive heart failure among black men could come from a biotech facility located in the inner city -- so it is perhaps not too farfetched to think that a similar advance could be made with AIDS, which so afflicts the African American and African population.

Again, Flanigan’s point is that the demand for biotech products is growing exponentially, thus the industry can only grow. However, it will take more patience on the part of Wall Street and the venture capital community than what they are accustomed to, but the rewards will ultimately be there for biotech business investments -- the industry of the 21st century.

Philip S. Hart

Los Feliz

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Regarding Flanigan’s use of the phrase “victims of spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.” Some individuals might regard themselves as “victims” or be regarded that way by others, but by not using the simpler “people who have spinal cord injury” The Times is adding a judgment that I’d venture wasn’t intended.

Art Blaser

Orange