ARTICLE: “Beyond the egg: The global vaccines industry is undergoing a renaissance,” The Economist, 10 March 2007, p. 65. ARTICLE: “For Booming Biotech Firms, A New Threat: Generics: Democrats’ Bills Would Clear Way for Copies; Preparations in Croatia,” by Ana Wilde Mathews and Leila Abboud, Wall Street Journal, 14 March 2007, p. A1.

All this connectivity forced upon the world by globalization is doing great things for disease treatments inside the Gap by making us all feel so much more vulnerable to pandemics. As such, vaccines, which “used to be seen as low-technology, commodity products that fetched low margins in rich countries and none at all in poor ones,” are now no longer viewed as dogs to be avoided but serious money makers worth throwing some serious investments at in the hope of global sales. Better yet, as biotech firms lose their privileged status as companies that don’t face the competition of generics (inevitably produces in New Core states eager to break into the biz, like Croatia cited here), we’ll see even better products at cheaper prices all over the Gap. Great stuff.