There will always be a demand for better medicine and health care - particularly as our society ages. The president's proposal to invest heavily in this emerging field could not come at a better time. Biotechnology companies already are growing by leaps and bounds. By 1999, there were 327. And biotechnology companies employed 153,000 workers in 1999, up from 79,000 just six years earlier.
Biotechnology clearly holds great promise for the future.
And don't think our best and brightest students don't recognize this potential. More and more, students are turning to biology and other life sciences as they enter college. In 1993, our colleges and universities awarded 47,000 bachelor's degrees in life sciences. By 1998, that had climbed to nearly 66,000 - a 40 percent increase. Similarly, the number of master's degrees awarded had climbed from 4,700 to nearly 6,300.