The present book entitled "Novel Frontiers in the Production of
Compounds for Biomedical Uses" can perhaps be placed in its best
perspective by the Shakespearean character in The Tempest who exclaimed"
What's past is prologue". Indeed, this compilation of some of the
outstanding presentations in the field of biomedicine made at th the 9
European Congress on Biotechnology (Brussels, Belgium, July 11-15, 1999)
not only reflects the achievements of the recent past, but provides a
privileged glimpse of the biotechnology that is emerging in the first
decade of the new Millennium. It is becoming increasingly apparent that
biotechnology is offering biomedicine novel approaches and solutions to
develop a sorely needed new generation of biopharmaceuticals. This is
all the more necessary because in recent years, new diseases have
emerged with extraordinary lethality in all corners of the globe, while
age-related chronic illnesses have filled the gap wherever biomedicine
has made successful inroads. The rise of antibiotic resistance also
poses major threats to public health. Thus, as disease patterns evolve,
the rational development of new drugs is becoming urgent, not only for
the clinical outcome of patients, but also in optimising the allocation
of scarce health care resources through the use of cost-effective
productions methods. It is in response to all these challenges that
biotechnology offers new strategies that go beyond the more traditional
approaches. By the mid-1990's, the number of recombinant products
approved annually for therapeutic use reached double digits. With the
advent of the genomics revolution.
