Biotechnology: The University Industrial Complex [Paperback]

Professor Martin Kenney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1988

"Kenney's work is the first major effort to provide a detailed analysis of the birth of the new industrial field of biotechnology and its impact on universities. . . . Kenney's book abounds in rich description and valuable conjectures. It also provides important insights into the structural and institutional aspects of the biotechnological revolution. It is informed by an extensive literature including reports from the financial community, university-industry contracts, trade journals, personal interviews, and company prospectuses."-Sheldon Krimsky, American Scientist "Probably never before has the emergence of a technology-based new industry been so exhaustive covered-while still in its gestation period. . . . An excellent and very readable review."-S. Allen Heininger, Chemical and Engineering News "The author raises important questions about whether the character of this university-industrial complex adequately allows for the kind of public discussion and participation necessary to insure consideration of social, economic, and moral issues in the development of this important new technology."-Harvard Educational Review "A fine description of a vital new field. It deserves wide readership."-David Silbert & Duncan Neuhauser, Ph.D., New England Journal of Medicine

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kenney is an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State. With this scholarly study he becomes an authoritative, cautionary voice on the close ties binding many universities to some of the world's largest corporations (mainly pharmaceutical) and how this "university-industrial complex" will effect educational institutions, agriculture, our very lives. Many university people will ponder thoughtfully Kenney's insights into the ways that big business, in the wake of the Watson-Crick DNA breakthrough in 1953, made their first passes at bio professors, university labs and university administrations themselves. When professors in effect become entrepreneurs, is pure science sullied? When halls of learning are caught up in the international struggle for markets by firms racing to produce profitable "living robots" viathe processes of altering microbial DNA, will ethics pay the price? Kenney asks in closing: "Should the immense power of transforming and changing life forms be transferred to groups merely seeking a return on investment? Appendixes explain DNA splicing and offer an instructive history of biotech patents.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Kenney describes the birth of the biotechnology industry within American universities and traces the evolution of the current university-industry relationship. He describes the conflicts inherent in this partnership and sketches actual situations. After detailing the patterns of the start-up companies (e.g., Genentech, Centocor), he discusses their ties with various academic institutes and their relationships with the multinational chemical and pharmaceutical companies. He concludes with an analysis of what biotechnology will do to U.S. agriculture and why we should be prepared for a tremendous social transformation caused by this new industry. A fascinating study of "the shattering of the ideology of pure science under the impact of economics," for public and academic libraries. Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Labs., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300042094
• ISBN-13: 978-0300042092
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,701,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.