The significance of biotechnology
Modern biotechnology is one of the key technologies of the 21st century. Biotechnological processes, products and services play a role in almost all areas of everyday life - whether it is in modern washing agents, food production or the treatment of diabetes.
Health
It is no longer possible to imagine the medical sector without biotechnology, because with the help of this new red biotechnology, active substances, vaccines and diagnostic procedures have been developed. Additionally targeted cultivation of cartilage tissue in the culture dish or gene therapy of serious hereditary metabolic disorders are amongst the most important uses for humans. By developing new processes, biotechnology additionally contributes to finding and establishing alternatives to animal testing.
Agriculture
In agriculture biotechnology serves as an instrument to make agricultural crops more resistant to pests or extreme weather conditions and therefore enable higher yields. Additionally plants can be altered to produce either more or other valuable contents than conventional plants. So called green biotechnology is not only used to cover the need for renewable raw materials and energy sources, but also to produce medications in the near future.
Environmental protection and resource conservation
Indeed there are many other things that biotechnology can do. It makes an important contribution to environmental protection and resource conservation. Thanks to the industrial - ”white“ - biotechnology, it is possible to manufacture basic chemicals or prototype products in a more energy and cost saving manner - under mild conditions, with environmental pressure and lower production of by-products and waste, often even based on renewable raw materials. In contrast classic chemical procedures often require high temperatures and pressures and therefore a lot of energy, they produce many by-products and require fossil raw material as a source.
Economic potential
Above and beyond the direct benefits of use biotechnology provides significant economic potential for Germany. For the first time in 2006 the turnover of biotechnology companies listed on the stock exchange exceeded the threshold of 70 billion US dollars. A look at Germany: There are currently around 600 ”pure“ biotechnology companies with an annual turnover of 1.76 billion Euros in 2006. Additionally around 60 companies are at least partially active in the area of biotechnology. All these companies and biotechnologically orientated sectors of other companies are currently employing almost 30,000 employees. Indeed these figures may seem small in comparison to other sectors at first glance - however the growth rate is a whole different story: From 2005 to 2006 the biotechnological companies listed on the German stock exchange increased their turnover by 14 percent; in the same period of time the number of industrial posts in the biotechnology sector increased by 22 percent.
