Author : zebethcontrol

The story so far • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in elon musk twitter, SocialNo Comments

Good morning, Elon Musk owns Twitter. We knew it was going to happen (except for the part where Elon fought it tooth and nail) but it’s real now, so let’s catch you up on the whirlwind that was the new “Chief Twit’s” ascension. The week’s festivities kicked off with Elon Musk paying a visit to Twitter HQ, on what we now know was the eve of the official deal close. He used the occasion to make an admittedly kinda funny visual pun about the phrase “let that sink in,” but carrying a sink and literally having Twitter let him and that sink in. Whimsical chaotic energy is definitely Musk’s strong suit so this is expected behavior, even if you can’t imagine any other execs — like, say, Tim Cook, for example — carrying large porcelain objects into office lobbies to announce an acquisition close. Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter HQ. On the heels of a report that some advertisers might boycott Twitter should Elon lift Donald Trump’s permanent ban, the Muskie posts an extend missive to advertisers trying to explain his logic (“I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love” is exquisite) and ends by assuring them it won’t “become a free-for-all hellscape” under his rule. Bucking the odds-makers, Elon does not reveal the deal close at 4:20 PM PT, but instead the news first trickles out then hits like a wave with near-simultaneous reports across all major outlets on Thursday at around 6 PM PT. That means he beat the deadline set upon him by Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick, which was today, October 28. The deadline resulted from the court case that resulted from Elon trying to wriggle out of the deal — in which he floated multiple defenses as an attempt to get out of his $44 billion commitment. Image Credits: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images (collage by ZebethMedia) / Getty Images Musk wasted no time clearing house when he got in: He fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Regal, general counsel Sean Edgett and head of legal, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde basically at the same time he was officially handed the keys. Clearly, there was no love lost between Musk and Agrawal. And he’d previously been criticized for posting criticism of Gadde that essentially got her targeted by his sycophantic troll army. Plus, for the Twitter top legal brass, I bet he wasn’t feeling too great about that bit of litigation the deal closing helped him escape. Reports early in this process indicated Elon might want to set himself up as Twitter’s next chief executive — adding a third (fourth? who knows) CEO title to his current LinkedIn profile. That seems to be the case, as reports just following the deal say he’ll put himself in the power spot. It does look like he’s going to be doing that as a temporary measure until he figures out who should occupy the seat long-term. Maybe one of the cronies who were cozying up to him in the message history revealed during the Twitter litigation’s discovery process will get the nod. It’s official: Twitter will delist from the New York Stock Exchange on November 8. That will officially end its tenure as a public company, which began with its IPO in November 2013. Musk is taking it private via his financing vehicle X Holdings I, Inc. which is now sole owner of the company in its entirety. Elon’s first official acknowledgement on Twitter of his new toy post-deal close was a tweet reading simply “the bird is freed.” This was quickly rejoined by European Commission Internet Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who responded with a reminder that freedom isn’t free. Notably, Breton has previously met with Musk in person and even recorded a video in which he says that he explained to Musk the EU’s Digital Services Act, and in which Musk basically says he’s aligned to everything it contains. 8. Elon discourses with some trolls Musk hasn’t said all that much since the takeover on Twitter, but he has replied to a couple of users who have complained about platform censorship in the past. One is a user called “catturd2” who claims he’s shadowbanned and who tweets COVID misinformation among other things. The other is Canada Proud, a right-wing propagandist group that also spreads COVID misinfo and focuses on attacking Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. That’s the story so far, but there’s going to be plenty more so stay tuned. We’ll update this post as more develops throughout the day and beyond.

I regret to inform you that Elon has something to do with this • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Equity podcast, Startups, VentureNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. We hope that you are in good form this Friday, alive, well, and ready to rock. We certainly were. And in a change of pace, as our dear Mary Ann was off this week, the excellent Anita Ramaswamy joined Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm on the mics. (Theresa, as per usual, held down the production front!) What did we merry three get into? The following: We are back Monday for a spooky episode! Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday and Wednesday, and at 6 a.m. PT on Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. ZebethMedia also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together, and more!

Twilio hack investigation reveals second breach, as the number of affected customers rises • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in cybersecurity, data breach, Security, telecommunications, TwilioNo Comments

U.S. messaging giant Twilio confirmed it was hit by a second breach in June that saw cybercriminals access customer contact information. Confirmation of the second breach — carried out by the same “0ktapus” hackers that compromised Twilio again in August — was buried in an update to a lengthy incident report that Twilio concluded on Thursday. Twilio said the “brief security incident,” which occurred on June 29, saw the same attackers socially engineer an employee through voice phishing, a tactic whereby hackers make fraudulent phone calls impersonating the company’s IT department in an effort to trick employees into handing over sensitive information. In this case, the Twilio employee provided their corporate credentials, enabling the attacker to access customer contact information for a “limited number” of customers. “The threat actor’s access was identified and eradicated within 12 hours,” Twilio said in its update, adding that customers whose information was impacted by the June Incident were notified on July 2. When asked by ZebethMedia, Twilio spokesperson Laurelle Remzi declined to confirm the exact number of customers impacted by the June breach and declined to share a copy of the notice that the company claims to have sent to those affected. Remzi also declined to say why Twilio has only just disclosed the incident. Twilio also confirmed in its update that the hackers behind the August breach accessed the data of 209 customers, an increase from 163 customers it shared on August 24. Twilio has not named any of its impacted customers, but some — like encrypted messaging app Signal — have notified users that they were affected by Twilio’s breach. The attackers also compromised the accounts of 93 Authy users, Twilio’s two-factor authentication app it acquired in 2015. “There is no evidence that the malicious actors accessed Twilio customers’ console account credentials, authentication tokens, or API keys,” Twilio said about the attackers, which maintained access to Twilio’s internal environment for two days between August 7 and August 9, the company confirmed. The Twilio breach is part of a wider campaign from a threat actor tracked as “0ktapus,” which targeted at least 130 organizations, including Mailchimp and Cloudflare. But Cloudflare said the attackers failed to compromise its network after having their attempts blocked by phishing-resistant hardware security keys. As part of its efforts to mitigate the efficacy of similar attacks in the future, Twilio has announced that it will also roll out hardware security keys to all employees. Twilio declined to comment on its rollout timeline. The company says it also plans to implement additional layers of control within its VPN, remove and limit certain functionality within specific administrative tooling, and increase the refresh frequency of tokens for Okta-integrated applications.

Crypto bear markets are a ‘great time’ to launch startups, industry execs say • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in bear market, Crypto, crypto startups, EC Blockchain, EC Cryptocurrency, EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, visaNo Comments

There are other things to look at beyond crypto prices, the COO of Uniswap, Mary-Catherine Lader, said at ZebethMedia Disrupt last week. “Right?” She asked rhetorically. “Especially if you’re building something and you’re excited about the technology and its potential and not [viewing] crypto necessarily as an asset class.” Even though the crypto market cap is below $1 trillion, down about 55% from $2.2 trillion at the beginning of the year, ideas, startups, and big players are still entering the space. “I think many of the products in the next phase could get to a point where consumers are using a product without knowing that there’s crypto behind the scenes.” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa “If you look at crypto market prices and pull out all of the general market decline […] what are you left with?” Brett Harrison, former president of FTX, asked during the panel. “I think you’re left with how much institutions are trading crypto and actual applications that are being built on crypto.” Compared to the 2018 crypto bear market, things have changed, Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said during the panel. “At the time there were questions of would anything exist outside of Bitcoin?” Today, there’s so much more for people to look at and build upon, including stablecoins, crypto infrastructure, or building a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized finance, Sheffield said.

Galen Robotics looks to assist ENT surgeons with new bot and $15M round • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Biotech & Health, Galen Robotics, Hardware, robotic surgery, Robotics & AINo Comments

Medical devices and robots have been making their way into operating rooms in an increasing number of procedures. Now a new robot is trying to forge its path in the OR and assist surgeons who don’t yet have that advantage. “There are surgeons out there that have really no robotic assistance at all,” said Bruce Lichorowic, CEO of Galen Robotics. “So you have surgeons out there that are doing everything still by hand, using their training to keep their tremor under control to keep themselves stable. Our goal is to see if we can assist them in these areas where there’s really no help today.” The company’s first robot aims to assist in soft tissue surgeries. Called Galen ES, it acts as a support for surgeons performing ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeries, particularly laryngeal cancer operations. Swappable instruments follow the surgeon’s hand movements but allow the user to take a break if needed. According to Lichorowic, the goal is to gain more clearances to help in other ENT, brain, spine, and cardiothoracic procedures. ZebethMedia Clip 10_13_22 v3.mov from David Saunders on Vimeo. The Galen ES fills up the space of a person and the company claims it takes no longer than four minutes to set up. While the device is in use, it tracks and records a surgeon’s movements to later be used for training purposes. The product is currently going under FDA review for clinical use approval, which the company said it hopes will come by Q1 or Q2 of 2023. Although the product is under review, a 2019 study showed surgeons who used the device performed better and had close to a 3 times boost in manual dexterity. The Da Vinci surgical system opened the market to adopting surgical robots. Subsequently, other robots have entered the market addressing general, cardiac and orthopedic surgery needs. According to Galen, its robot will be the first to address neurosurgery and spine surgeries, once clearance is earned. Image Credits: Galen Robotics Hospitals adopting the robot must commit to using the device in 200 cases and pay upwards of $1,500 per use. Though, if a hospital wants to flat-out buy the robot they can do so with a cool $350,000. Surgeons at Stanford, Harvard Medical School, UCSF, USC, and Johns Hopkins have expressed interest in the product according to Galen. The device was originally developed and tested at Johns Hopkins. Galen has garnered support in the form of a $15 million Series A round from Ambix Healthcare Partners. The company has also opened a second close for its Series A, hoping to raise an additional $5 million. ”We watched this team take an early surgical robotic prototype from Johns Hopkins University’s Robotics Lab, develop it into a potential game changer, and submit it to FDA, all during a pandemic,” said Arron Berez, managing director of Ambix Healthcare Partners, in a written statement. “Add to that the current state of supply chain issues, and economic uncertainty, and we’re very impressed with how this team was able to consistently execute and hit their milestones.” This round’s funds will be used to develop a surgeon training program and expand various teams within the company.

Twitter will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on November 8 • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Apps, nyse, Startups, stock, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter’s stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and become a private company on November 8, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This comes a day after Elon Musk completed the company’s takeover after a lengthy ordeal. “The New York Stock Exchange hereby notifies the SEC of its intention to remove the entire class of the stated securities from listing and registration on the Exchange at the opening of business on November 08, 2022, pursuant to the provisions of Rule 12d2-2 (a),” the filing reads. It also indicated that the merger between Twitter and Musk’s subsidiary X Holdings II, Inc was complete. “The merger between Twitter, Inc. and X Holdings II, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon R. Musk became effective on October 27, 2022. Each share of Twitter, Inc. Common Stock was exchanged for USD 54.20 in cash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes. The Exchange also notifies the Securities and Exchange Commission that as a result of the above-indicated conditions this security was suspended from trading before market open on October 28, 2022.” At the time of writing, Twitter’s stock was trading at $53.70 — slightly lower than Musk’s buying price of $54.20. The story is developing…

Elon Musk will reportedly take the CEO role after exec exodus • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Apps, ceo, Elon Musk, trump, TwitterNo Comments

After Elon Musk completed his Twitter takeover, multiple reports and tweets from company employees suggested that he fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, and head of legal policy, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde were leaving the company immediately. Now he might take over the top job — at least for now. A report from Bloomberg suggested that Musk will take up the CEO position, but will hand it over to someone else in the long term. As a CEO he will have to take care of different challenges like user growth, revenue growth and content moderation hurdles. Agrawal, who took over from Jack Dorsey last year after the Twitter co-founder left the company, has had a strenuous relationship with Musk. The Tesla CEO famously tweeted a poop emoji in reply to Agarwal’s lengthy thread about spam on the platform. The process leading up to the Twitter v. Musk trial revealed a trove of texts between different investors and executives. While Agarwal and Musk began their conversation cordially, their relationship soured over time. Bloomberg’s report also mentioned that Musk plans to lift lifelong bans on users. Twitter famously banned former President Donald Trump last year for breaking the platform’s rules and over the “risk of further incitement of violence” following the U.S. Capitol attack. This step of unbanning all users might draw mixed reactions across the political spectrum, and will test the billionaire’s efforts as to how far he wants to go to make Twitter the “digital town square” he wants it to be. We have heard a lot about Musk’s ideas as the top man of Twitter. That included suggestions of building “X, an everything app” to monetizing tweets in different ways. There has been a lot of uncertainty around how the Tesla CEO will handle layoffs and restructure teams at the social network during the course of the whole takeover deal starting from April. While Twitter’s CEO, CFO, and top lawyers were fired today, several top executives including former GM of consumer, Keyvon Beykpour and former revenue product lead Bruce Falck have left the company since Musk initiated the deal. Given so many empty seats at top management, Musk has to bring in some top talent to execute things he wants to achieve at Twitter.

54gene valuation slashed by over $100M amid job cuts and CEO exit • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in 54gene, africa, Biotech & Health, StartupsNo Comments

It’s been a strange couple of months at African genomics startup 54gene. In August, it sacked 95 employees, mostly contract staff (in labs and sales departments) hired to work in 54gene’s COVID business line launched in 2020. In September, co-founder and VP of Engineering Ogochukwu Francis Osifo left the company. And this week, founder and now ex-CEO Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong stepped down from his executive role to be replaced by General Counsel Teresia L. Bost. This news coincided with more job cuts. The company confirmed to ZebethMedia that this second round of layoffs, which took place on Tuesday, affected over 100 staff: 55% of the total workforce remaining after the first round of layoffs. The biotech didn’t specify what roles and departments got trimmed. The Washington- and Lagos-based genomics startup has been considered the showpiece of Africa’s fledging biotech space since it got into Y Combinator in 2019. But while 54gene launched to address the gap in the global genomics market, where Africans make up less than 3% of genetic material used in pharmaceutical research, its growth in 2020 overlapped elsewhere, with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it hired aggressively to meet the demands of being one of Nigeria’s largest providers of COVID testing. Its preparedness to meet this opportunity with its clinical diagnostic arm was also a catalyst to increasing its revenue and raising two huge growth rounds in quick succession: a $15 million Series A that year and a $25 million Series B in 2021 from investors such as New York-based Adjuvant Capital, Pan-African firm Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF), KdT Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst. Yet, 2022 will be a year to forget for the biotech startup. Not only has its revenues dwindled and laid off almost 200 employees, but the company’s value has also been significantly trimmed in a period when startups’ valuations are taking a beating. According to people with knowledge of the matter, 54gene’s valuation has dropped by two-thirds, from the $170 million secured when it raised its Series B to about $50 million in a bridge round involving lead investors from the company’s board. Sources also said the down round closed at a 3x to 4x liquidation preference, meaning that investors — typically the lead investor — would be paid back triple or quadruple their money before other stakeholders, including other investors, founders and employees in the case of an exit. These terms, which shift power back to investors, were rare during the venture capital boom between mid-2020 and last year but are now commonplace in this fundraising environment. 54gene didn’t confirm or deny the premise of this deal. Still, it stated in an email response: “The existing investors injected fresh capital into the company at terms that reflect current market conditions. We hope this round not only supports the company through this challenging period but also positions it for success in the future — whether it be to raise additional capital, attract strategic partners, or another future path.” Often, liquidation preferences signal that investors want to protect themselves if a growth-stage portfolio company exits at a value lower than initially expected. In some cases, the investors believe that the startup might struggle to produce a solid exit due to underlying challenges affecting its business. When the company’s first layoff news broke, allegations of financial impropriety were leveled against the then-CEO and his executives from a group of employees. And though they remain unfounded, these accusations have come to light again following Ene-Obong’s resignation. Affected employees — who claim they haven’t received their severance packages and spoke to ZebethMedia on the condition of anonymity — unsubstantially blame 54gene’s current troubles on irresponsible hiring, questionable expansion drives and misappropriation of funds. The YC-backed biotech didn’t respond to ZebethMedia’s request for comments about its former executives’ alleged mismanagement of funds and employees’ unpaid severance packages. 54gene’s tight-lippedness on the matter and Bost’s appointment from her legal role to interim CEO arbitrarily raises questions and leaves room for interpretation tilting toward these accusations, especially as both co-founders resigned a few weeks apart. However, in an email to ZebethMedia, the company subtly counterargues that Osifo’s resignation had been in process for some time and was unrelated to this month’s activities, while Bost, hired last September, was what 54gene needed — with support from COO Delali Attipoe — for its next phase. “Teresia is a well-rounded executive with a depth of experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry, leading global teams and overseeing corporate governance,” the company said. “These skills, coupled with her breadth of experience driving business operations and translating complex regulatory requirements, will be invaluable at the helm of 54gene in this next phase of the company. Delali and Teresia will make a great team that together will strengthen 54gene’s position as a genomics leader in the industry.” Meanwhile, 54gene stated that its ex-chief executive “will continue to support the company in its go-forward plans such as strategic partnerships and fundraising” without explaining why he stepped down. However, according to several people with knowledge of happenings at the company, the terms of 54gene’s new deal contributed to Ene-Obong’s resignation. They say Ene-Obong — retaining his position on 54gene’s board while moving to a new senior advisor role — may have resigned as CEO in protest of 54gene’s new valuation and the liquidation preference offered by investors in the bridge round. There is some speculation that some of the investors also attempted to reprise the company’s previous prized round to get more shares while diluting that of the founders and other investors. 54gene declined to comment on the matter. The fact that 54gene had to arrange a bridge round in-house despite securing over $45 million over the last three years is a reminder that biotech projects are highly capital-intensive — for instance, it costs about $700 to sequence a human genome (one of 54gene’s main procedures). Typically, biotechs deploy investors’ funds into research while thinking about revenue later and the case isn’t different with 54gene. Still, the

Xiaomi winds down financial services business in India • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Apps, Fintech, mi pay, Xiaomi, Xiaomi IndiaNo Comments

Xiaomi has quietly discontinued its financial services in India, less than three years after launching payment and lending apps in the key global market, two sources familiar with the matter told ZebethMedia, retreating from what analysts say is a $1 trillion opportunity. The Chinese giant recently pulled the Mi Pay and Mi Credit apps in the country from the local Play Store and its own app store. Mi Pay, which allowed users to make transactions on the nation’s UPI payments network, is also no longer listed among the recognized UPI apps by NPCI, an industry body that oversees UPI. Xiaomi and NPCI did not respond to a request for comment. The abrupt wind down of the financial services business is a setback for Xiaomi India, which commands the smartphone market in the country and has aggressively expanded its offerings to increase profits as the company’s hardware business operates on razor-thin margins. Xiaomi launched Mi Pay in India in March 2019. The app had amassed over 20 million registered users in the country that year itself, company executives said at the time. Later in the year, the company launched Mi Credit, an app that lent customers between $70 to $1,400 at low interest rates. It accessed users’ texts and call logs to look for transactions information and some other details to determine their credit-worthiness and approved loans to them through partners in a matter of minutes. In August last year, Xiaomi India’s then head Manu Jain told media outlets that the company was aiming to become one of the largest players in India’s fintech space through Mi Credit and Mi Pay apps. The company considered India as the biggest market for Mi Credit after China, he said. Scores of giants including Facebook and Google have entered India’s digital loan market, offering small businesses loans via partners. Digital lending is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2025, according to estimates from the Boston Consulting Group. Jain, who has transitioned to a different role within the firm since, said last year that the company was looking to bring several more financial services including gold loans, credit line cards and insurance to the South Asian market. It’s unclear why Xiaomi discontinued the financial services offerings in the country, but the move comes at a time when India’s central bank has proposed stringent rules surrounding lending in India, mandating what all data they can access on a customer’s phone and broader disclosures about the terms of their credit agreement. Xiaomi has also been at the center of intense scrutiny from the Indian government agencies. The Indian Enforcement Directorate earlier this year seized bank accounts of Xiaomi India after finding that the company had remitted $725 million to three foreign-based entities “in the guise of royalty” payments. Executives of Xiaomi, which has refuted the charges and has legally challenged the ruling, faced threats of “physical violence” during their investigation with the ED, Reuters reported earlier.

US sanctions on China could extend to biotech, official says • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in biotech, Biotech & Health, China, Sanctions, usNo Comments

On the heels of the Biden administration’s decision to impose sweeping chip sanctions on China, there are signs that China might also lose access to other types of critical U.S. technologies including biotechnology, an area that has historically seen close cooperation between the two countries. Areas “on my radar” for possible additional export controls include quantum computing, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence, said Alan Estevez, Commerce Department undersecretary for industry and security, according to The Washington Post. The message is worrying for an industry that’s intrinsically global. Biotech is one of the few areas, alongside climate policy, that transcends nationalities and boundaries between countries. Scientific progress in China could well save lives in the U.S. The globalization of the sector has also resulted in greater efficiency. As we wrote before, biotech firms often maintain a presence in China and the U.S. to leverage the different strengths of both sides. In China, they harness large reams of patient data, fast and cost-efficient clinical trials, as well as local tax cuts, government funding, and subsidized offices to advance their research. At the same time, they keep operations in the U.S. to tap the country’s R&D talent and work towards FDA regulatory approval and commercialization. It’s not uncommon to see biotech startups increasingly labeling themselves “born global” and employing executives with experiences in China, the U.S., and other countries. Needleless injection device maker NovaXS, for example, was founded by a Berkeley researcher who headquarters the company in the U.S. but conducts clinical trials in China. Xtalpi, one of China’s most-funded drug discovery startups, conducts research and business development in Boston, where it “maintains close communication with professors and experts from the research community as well as from the pharmaceutical industry,” while keeping multiple R&D centers across China. When asked previously why the drug discovery firm Insilico straddles China and the U.S., founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov compared the space to the early semiconductor industry where “research was done mostly in the U.S. while hardware production happened in China.” Eastern Chinese city Wuxi especially has emerged as a global hub for contract research organizations, which conduct outsourced work for international pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Biotechnology is “a highly complex, uncertain, and very risky process that fails 95-99% of the time if you start from target discovery. To put one drug on the market, you need 10-15 years, $2-3 billion dollars, and the process fails 95-99% of the time,” Zhavoronkov observed. “International collaboration in biotechnology is a way to share this huge risk and cost. And by limiting collaboration in this field or even talking about it, the politicians demonstrate a lack of fundamental understanding of the industry and disregard for the health and well-being of their electorate,” he added. Indeed, treating the biotech sector with a security-driven approach could harm U.S. competitiveness, argued two U.S. scholars specializing in China, writing for ChinaFile: Unlike the semiconductor and telecommunication sectors, whose development depends on expensive equipment and hard-to-acquire manufacturing expertise, barriers to entry in biotechnology are low. Likewise, as Eric Lander’s now infamous mapping of CRISPR’s development illustrates, both foundational research and key innovations in biotechnology often take place in the public domain and build on incremental advancements made across the globe. When breakthroughs, like employing CRISPR as a means of gene-editing, do occur they spread through global scientific networks with little heed for national boundaries. Consequently, it is not a zero-sum industry in which a single innovation sets any firm or country ahead for a prolonged period.