Intellectual Property & Your Health Series - history of biotechnology too

Shidonna Raven
2 hours ago
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Last Updated: September. 19, 2025

Article History

Source: Britannica

Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,

Before you go to the Doctor!

History of biotechnology too

For more than a decade, the biotechnology industry was dominated by recombinant DNA technology, or genetic engineering. This technique consists of splicing the gene for a useful protein (often a human protein) into production cells—such as yeast, bacteria, or mammalian cells in culture—which then begin to produce the protein in volume. In the process of splicing a gene into a production cell, a new organism is created. At first, biotechnology investors and researchers were uncertain about whether the courts would permit them to acquire patents on organisms; after all, patents were not allowed on new organisms that happened to be discovered and identified in nature. But, in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty, resolved the matter by ruling that “a live human-made microorganism is patentable subject matter.” This decision spawned a wave of new biotechnology firms and the infant industry’s first investment boom. In 1982 recombinant insulin became the first product made through genetic engineering to secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since then, dozens of genetically engineered protein medications have been commercialized around the world, including recombinant versions of growth hormone, clotting factors, proteins for stimulating the production of red and white blood cells, interferons, and clot-dissolving agents.