1 the Bst Case

Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST) is a milk production enhancer, a product of industrial microbiology. First approved for commercial sale in the United States (U.S.) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994, rBST has been immersed in controversy since the early 1980s. Conflicts among major players with interests in rBST have shaped the product's image and influenced its use. Players with interests in the product include government agencies, Monsanto Corporation (the first firm approved to sell rBST), other firms seeking commercial approval to sell rBST, dairy farmers, and consumers. The product rBST is similar to other groundbreaking technologies in that its introduction and use have been politicized. FDA commercial approval of rBST was delayed for two reasons: (1) FDA failed to develop policies for reviewing new biotechnologies in a timely fashion, and (2) strong opposition of rBST-use focused debate on should the government approve a product that wasn't wanted by consumers, that could cause some (smaller) dairy farmers to go bankrupt, and that would mostly benefit four large drug companies? Opponents additionally took the offense in the labeling game by gaining approval to use "rBST-Free" labels on products that did not contain rBST. While the rBST story continues to unfold, it already provides strategic marketing lessons for people involved with the product itself, other new biotechnologies and 2 government. The product rBST is one of the first major U.S. test-case biotechnologies. How government agencies and market participants react to rBST is setting a precedent for how those agencies and participants will react to similar technologies already available or yet to be introduced. While other countries (Mexico, Brazil, India, Russia and at least ten others) have approved rBST for commercial use, this story focuses heavily on U.S. experience with the product. Hence, most of the implications drawn in this case relate to developed country experience with rBST. The following presents background and information relating to the introduction and use of rBST, consumer and producer reactions to rBST, impacts of conflicts among players affected by the new technology, and lessons gleaned from experiences with the product. Economic concepts offered by von Witzke and Hanf (see References) proved valuable for developing the key sections dealing with consumer and producer reactions to rBST. Hereafter, in the text, both rBST (also known as rBGH), the synthetic product made by recombinant DNA technology, and naturally occurring BST will be referred to as BST.