The former director of the UK's Sanger Centre and a leading biotech entrepreneur have expressed their concern over the delay of a new £100 million 'genome campus' in Cambridgeshire. Sir John Sulston and Sir Christopher Evans, both knighted in the New Year's Honours List for their scientific efforts, have criticised the delay following the Wellcome Trust's original proposal, submitted in 1997.
The campus was to occupy a 40,000 square metre site located next to the Sanger Centre, where scientists sequenced a third of the entire human genetic code. It was to accommodate both new and established biotech companies, providing a centre for turning new genetic knowledge into industrial applications. But the proposal was opposed by South Cambridgeshire district council because of concerns over roads, housing and other infrastructure. A revised plan, based on 24,000 square metres and restricted to new companies, was proposed in 1999 by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott but condemned by the project's chief executive as 'ludicrous'.
Meanwhile, share prices in biotech stocks are falling, after the increased investment that followed last year's announcement of the first draft of the human genome. An article in the Independent newspaper blames the fall on the perception that the human genome sequence would lead to a medical revolution overnight. But investment managers say that biotech stocks are now back at realistic levels.
Sources and References
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£70bn genome market hopes 'threatened by dithering'
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Biotech stocks slide as markets turn sceptical on
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