Biobusiness revolution

There are only two ways to live your life. 

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.

- Albert Einstein -

Summary:

Biobusiness is commercial activities based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. Biobusiness is relatively a new kind of business but it has been developing at such a fast pace. It has already constituted 25% global GDP. This fascinating development indicates that biobusiness has a lot of potential and it can change human lives in many fields such as biomedical, environment…  Among many biobusiness sectors, the market size of health care is large, especially in the United States. It is evident that the more society develops, the more people concern about their health care. According to the table of global biobusiness market size in 2001 that Prof shows us in class, US health care market size in 2001 is more than a half of global market size. However, Prof points out the problem that health care investment is mostly spent on extending last few years of lives rather than on providing proper health care for young generation. This can be a serious issue for countries which are having or will have aging population since the health care expense will be such a big burden. Prof also gives class details about health care revolution. Nowadays, more and more medicines and vaccines are invented to cure or prevent people from suffering diseases.

Key takeaway points:

Immortality

One presentation in class today brings back the topic of immortality. It is an interesting topic because as the technology is more and more advanced, people now can think about mortality not as a fiction but non-fiction topic. The science base is that technology advances can enable people to produce some pharmaceutical that can reactivate telomere production in the cells. It is possible that in the near future, people can actually choose whether they want to live their lives forever. Interestingly, although the idea of mortality is fascinating, not many people in class want to be immortal. In the view of individuals, lives are only meaningful when you have limited time so that you appreciate what you experienced. In the view of society, immorality is actually a serious problem. If people are immortal, the population can not be controlled and natural resources can not be enough to satisfy human needs.

Moral hazard

Moral hazard arises when an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Moral hazard is an issue in health insurance industry. People who buy health insurance are less responsible since they have already paid for the services, they have incentives to ask for more health services than necessary. This action can lead to escalation in the health care cost and waste of time and resources.

Issues for further discussion:
1. Should society invest on searching for immortality method or should it invests only on health care services?

2. How the health care revolution can ensure the access of health care for everyone?

Personal rating:

8.5/10