Knowledge and the Biotechnology Economy : A Case of Mistaken Identity

When analysts write about the ‘biotechnology economy’, they assume readers know what the ‘biotechnology economy’ is and what, despite certain differences, it shares with economies generated by other industrial sectors. This is a phrase, however, that could not have been used with such confidence as recently as two decades ago. It was during that period that the word ‘biotechnology’ first became part of common language and that the “biotechnology economy” was given a market-based frame of reference that established its identity and a certain ideology which overcame discontinuities and internal inconsistencies.