132 • Impacts of Applied Genetics— Micro-Organisms, Plants, and Animals 
search). Federal support of biological re- 
search is managed by several agencies, and 
this course would create few, if any, major 
administrative problems. 
3. Guarantee markets for particular prod- 
ucts. In addition to patent protection, 
which would be of little value in the case of 
an organism purposefully disseminated 
into the environment, the Government 
could offer to buy desirable microbes. This 
public sector market might provide enough 
incentive to research to make Federal fund- 
ing unnecessary, or the market incentive 
and research support might be used jointly. 
4. Fix a limit on liability and set up liability in- 
surance, funded partly or wholly by tbe 
Government. This option would reduce tbe 
financial risk for entrepreneurs who ven- 
ture to clean up pollutants with microbes. 
Sucb an insurance scheme would require 
that a Federal agency (EPA, for instance) be 
satisfied that little risk was attendent in the 
use of the microbe. 
5. Arrange a scheme to test micro-organisms 
for known and anticipated risks before 
they are released. The Federal Government 
might have to bear these costs as part of a 
research program. 
6. Leave most efforts to industry and allow 
each Government agency to develop pro- 
grams in the fields of genetic engineering 
and biotechnology as it sees fit. 
This option, currently the status quo, seems 
to be favored by some industry officials. If it is 
worth doing, they argue, industry will do it. To 
a large extent, the availability of venture capital 
in the United States has allowed many com- 
panies to pursue projects that are deemed prac- 
tical and economically important. The produc- 
tion of interferon, insulin, ethanol, ethylene 
glycol, and fructose are cited as examples of 
successful applications that were motivated by 
industry. 
Generic research, or research that is fun- 
damentally useful to a broad range of com- 
panies, will probably not be undertaken by any 
one company. When the payoff does not come 
soon enough, the Government has traditionally 
taken the responsibility for funding the work. 
E.g., NIH supported 717 basic research projects 
involving rDNA in fiscal year 1980 at a cost of 
$91.5 million. Similarly, high-risk research with 
high capital costs would be likely targets for 
Government support. 
Leaving all R&.D in industry's hands would 
still produce major commercial successes, but 
would not ensure the development of generic 
knowledge or the undertaking of high-risk proj- 
ects. 
