It was cosponsored by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and Eli E. Hertz.
Biotechnology is already big business.
Thousands of products are in the pipeline, under development or awaiting regulatory approval. These should emerge in the next few years, signaling the field's next, more mature phase. Israel, given its much smaller size, domestic market and access to venture capital, has only about 50 domestic biotech companies, employing 3,000 Israelis. Israel's intensive interest and investment in science, however, give her a scientific status and high-tech impact typical of industrialized countries many times her absolute size. The specific Israeli innovations in biotechnology, moreover, create opportunities for strategic alliances that can benefit the companies involved and, more broadly, the citizens of Israel and the United States.