[moonchrome]

>You need to chemically analyze your product, and ultimately you need to try it on people.

I can think of many industrial applications where biotech could help without the need to test it on humans, eg. food synthesis - efficiently producing essential amino acids, carbs and fats by bacteria in an environment suitable to industrial production. Or materials like that spider silk they did when genetically modifying silkworm.

[splatterdash]

Wouldn't that also requires access to industrial-grade chemicals & machines?

E.g. you need to purify your amino acids or carbs, and test the purity, check if any dangerous by-products are present, etc.