Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

The biotechnology industry has grown up on a pattern
of “boom and bust” investment cycles. These are
characterised by periods when stock prices soar and
initial public offering opportunities arise, followed
by relatively long stretches when investors keep their
distance from the sector. 5 Despite this volatility,
Figure 1 shows that the global biotechnology industry
is currently on a steady incremental growth path.
This growth is projected to continue. This can be
seen by the number of countries developing more
established biotechnology sectors and increasing scale
within the industry. For example:
• The emergence of mature “big biotech”
companies, notably in the biopharmaceutical
sector, that are beginning to successfully compete
with the large multi-national pharmaceutical
companies for deals. 7
The US biotechnology sector and therefore the global
biotechnology industry is dominated by the human
health sector. A survey of the US industry in 2003 by
the Department of Commerce 8 found that 54% of
responding biotechnology companies were involved in
this broad sector (Figure 2).
• Canada and Germany are beginning to show
signs of a more mature biotechnology industry,
which can be characterised by growing revenues
from biotechnology products and processes and
a workforce that is no longer purely focused on
R&D, but also on production, marketing and sales. 6
Figure 2
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Biotechnology Activity of US Companies by Sector
% of Companies involved
50
40
30
20
10
Other Environmental Industrial Microbial Agriculture and
Aquaculture
Animal health
Human health
5
Ernst and Young (2005), Coming of Age – The Global Biotechnology Industry
6
OECD (2004),“The Economic Impacts of Biotechnology – An Introduction” – Working paper of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators, DSTI/EAS/STP/
NETI (2004), p.6
7
Thiel, Karl. A, (2005),“A Firm Handshake: biotech’s growing negotiating power”, Nature Biotechnology, v23, n10, p.1221-1226
8
US Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security (2003), A Survey of the Use of Biotechnology in US Industry
Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research
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