The Race to Commercialize Biotechnology: Molecules, Market and the State in Japan and the US

by Steven W. Collins

This comparative study looks at the early development of biotechnology in the US and Japan. Drawing on primary and secondary sources it traces the historical roots of recombinant DNA technology, discusses the tensions between regulation and promotional policies and identifies the major actors and strategies that launched biotechnology in both countries. Developing several strands of theory in economic history, science and technology policy, the book proposes a simple model that relates the differences in the two countries' responses to variations in the availability of institutional, financial and organizational resources needed to commercialize the new technology.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Steven W. Collins, Ph.D. (Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia, 1994; B.S., Chemical Engineering, UVA, 1983), is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Bothell, where he was among the founding faculty of the Mechanical Engineering program in the School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).