Fwd: GM Debacle Continues

[Guest guest]

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 14:44:05 GMT

GM Debacle Continues

 

BODY { MARGIN: 20px 0px 0px}LI { LIST-STYLE-POSITION: outside; FONT: 10pt/12pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}UL { LIST-STYLE-POSITION: outside; FONT:

10pt/12pt verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}OL { FONT: 10pt/12pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}P { FONT: 10pt/12pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}B { FONT: bold 10pt/12pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}H1 { FONT: 16pt/18pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}H2 { FONT: 16pt/18pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}H3 { PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; PADDING-LEFT: 1px;

BACKGROUND: #ccffcc; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; FONT: 12pt/14pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; PADDING-TOP: 1px}H4 { FONT: bold 11pt/11pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}HR { COLOR: green}TH { BACKGROUND: #ccffcc;

FONT: bold 11pt/11pt verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}TD { FONT: 10pt/10pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}.small { FONT: 8pt/10pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}.smallbold { FONT: bold 8pt/10pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif}.smallboldwhite { FONT: bold 8pt/10pt

verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; COLOR: #ffffff}The Institute of Science in

SocietyScience Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk General Enquiries

sam Website/Mailing List press-release ISIS Director

m.w.ho

UNSUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS ARE AT THE FOOT OF THIS MESSAGE

GM Debacle Continues

Desperate biotech corporations are deserting academic research despite massive

bailouts from our governments. It is high time to redirect public investments

away from this financial and intellectual dead-end, says Dr. Mae-Wan Ho.

 

We predicted the demise of the biotech empire last summer (Goodbye GMOs, Science

in Society 2002, 16). It is turning into catastrophic collapse since.

 

Syngenta staged a series of stunning retreats from funding basic research while

tottering Monsanto shed its president and chief executive.

 

On 4 December, Swiss-based biotech giant Syngenta announced it intends to close

its Torrey Mesa Research Institute (TMRI) by the end of January. TMRI is barely

four years old; it has led the company’s efforts to sequence the rice genome and

developed the first gene chips for Arabidopsis and rice.

 

The closure is part of a restructuring that will bring together Syngenta and

Diversa, a San Diego-based company focusing on isolating genes from microbes in

extreme environments. As many as 76 of TMRI’s 180 employees will move to

Diversa, and 30 will relocate to Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. (SBI) in North

Carolina.

 

Steven Briggs, TMRI’s chief executive, who will go to Diversa as senior vice

president of research and development platforms, sees the new partnership as " an

extremely exciting opportunity " , while David Jones, Syngenta’s head of plant

science in Basel, Switzerland says the move reflects the " maturity " of TMRI’s

research.

 

But others see the closure as part of an industry-wide cut back on research

funding; it is " a big retraction " , according to Chris Sommerville, plant

biologist in Stanford, California.

 

Although reorganisation had been on the cards for a long time, a shut down was

the last thing anyone expected. One senior scientist confessed himself

" flabbergasted " .

 

TMRI was established during California’s technology boom of the late 1990s. The

Novartis Research Foundation recruited Briggs in 1998 to direct its newly formed

Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute (NADI). In 2000, Novartis spun off its

agricultural arm to form Syngenta, which acquired NADI, and renamed it TMRI.

 

Besides coordinating the sequencing of the rice genome, TMRI developed a

collection of 100,000 mutants and made them available to outsiders with certain

commercial restrictions. The institute also collaborated with Affymetrix to

develop a gene chip containing about half the rice genome, still the only gene

chip available for a cereal plant, notes plant physiologist Russell Jones of the

University of California, Berkeley. The shut down may delay the availability of

the full-genome chip expected early next year.

 

Briggs blames the " very sombre experience " of TMRI’s closure on the agricultural

economy. " We’ve been in a state of contraction for the past 5 years, " he says.

" There’s no indication of a turnaround ... and so there’s a danger of

significant reductions in research budgets, the focus has to be on generating

revenues. You sacrifice your research. "

 

Syngenta’s troubles could affect other centres. Sources close to the

controversial partnership between Syngenta and UC Berkeley say that their 5-year

agreement will probably not be renewed in 2003 when the $25 million deal

expires.

 

The latest retreat came only months after Syngenta announced the termination of

research alliance with the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Britain that still had

several years to run, and just as the taxpayer-funded Genome Centre, that was to

house Syngenta’s laboratory, was being unveiled.

 

On December 18, Monsanto’s president and chief executive Hendrik Verfaillie

announced his resignation, ending a 26-year career with Monsanto, citing as

reason the company’s poor financial performance over the past two years.

 

Verfaillie led the company through a merger with Pharmacia & Upjohn in 2000,

which ended in the spinoff from Pharmacia earlier this year.

 

The company announced about 700 job cuts in April to consolidate operations at

facilities in several regions in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and

North America. Monsanto has about 14,600 workers worldwide.

 

For the first nine months of 2002, Monsanto lost $1.75 billion, compared to a

profit of $399 million a year ago. Sales for the nine months declined 19 percent

to $3.45 billion from $4.25 billion.

 

In October, Monsanto lowered its forecast for earnings for all of 2002, citing a

continued decline in sales of Roundup in the United States and

lower-than-expected sales in Argentina.

 

Desperate biotech corporations are deserting academic research despite massive

bailouts from our governments. It is high time to redirect public investments

away from the financial and intellectual dead-end that biotechnology is proving

itself to be.

Sources:

" Retreat from Torrey Mesa: a chill wind in ag research " by Gretchen Vogel,

Science 20002, 298, 13 December; " Monsanto President Verfaillie Resigns " by Jim

Salter, Associated Press

http://www.austin360.com/aas/business/ap/ap_story.html/Financial/AP.V9067.AP-Mon\

santo-CEO-Re.html

Norfolk Genetic Engineering Network www.ngin.org.uk

 

 

 

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMdebaclecont.php

If you would prefer to receive future mailings as plain text please let us

know.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list - please reply to

press-release with the word in the subject field

 

The Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 OXR

telephone: [44 20 8731 7714] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam - Website/Mailing List

press-release - ISIS Director m.w.ho

MATERIAL IN THIS EMAIL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION, ON

CONDITION THAT IT IS ACCREDITED ACCORDINGLY AND CONTAINS A LINK TO

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now