Four Perspectives on Business Model Evolution in Synthetic Biology

ht tp://www.CommerCialBioteChnology.Com 62 IntroductIon Back in 2010 in these same pages, managing editor, Yali Friedman asked: Is the biotechnology industry ready for a new business model?1 Historically, the industry had three models, the fully integrated life science company (or FILCO), the platform company, and the hybrid. The FILCO model is best characterized by Amgen and Genentech, early biotech pioneers that built large vertically integrated companies. The platform company developed a technology platform–a tool, equipment, or software—licensed it out or sold it. This business model is similar to technology platform companies, where a firm develops a technology that can be sold to other research and development firms or is split up and sold off piecemeal, ultimately generating more total value. In the 2010 OECD Workshop on the Outlook of Industrial Biotechnology, platform companies were also categorized as service providers. The hybrid model combined product development with a technology platform that could be sold or licensed to others. This model was especially popular in the years leading up to and after 2000, and could be best characterized by Human Genome Sciences and Millennium. Since biotechnology is a young industry, funding sources change, and corporate interest wax and wane, new business models emerge without necessarily replacing the older ones. Most recently, the biotechnology