Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

growth of the sector worldwide. The biotechnology sector
in New Zealand has moved from a purely speculative
research base to having 50 companies whose core
business is biotechnology, 130 who use biotechnology,
and over 350 companies that consider themselves a part
of the wider biotechnology community.
Despite recent expansion, the biotechnology sector
in New Zealand is still at a very early stage, with most
(62%) of the biotechnology techniques used by New
Zealand organisations at R&D stage. Of the 50 core
biotechnology companies, 50% were created in the last
three years.
On a global scale New Zealand accounts for less than
0.001% of world biotechnology revenue. 32
Despite the New Zealand biotechnology industry’s
small scale globally, revenues continue to grow
incrementally – with biotechnology income for the
2005 financial year valued at $811 million.
Of this, the private sector contributed $515 million,
the public sector $160 million and the higher
education sector the remaining $135 million.
Biotechnology expenditure over the same period was
valued at $642 million.
New Zealand biotechnology companies currently
export to more than 60 countries. Major export markets
include the United States, Europe and Australia.
NZBio estimates that export earnings may reach the
$1 billion mark around 2014. 33
The biotechnology sector in New Zealand exhibits
many unique characteristics due to a distinct research,
industrial and environmental mix as well as its small
size and distance from its major markets. Comparative
international statistics show that New Zealand has
a significantly higher percentage of biotechnology
firms active in agro-food applications than other
countries (Figure 3). This is to be expected from what
has always been the very strong biological base to the
New Zealand economy. In short, the growth of the
biotechnology industry is in great part a re-focusing of
what New Zealand has always done.
Figure 3
60
50
40
Percentage of biotechnology firms active in agro-food applications (2003) 34
30
20
10
New Zealand (2005) (1)
South Africa (2002) (1)
Canada (2)
Iceland (1)
%
Korea (2004) (2)
Israel (2002) (1)
Australia (1)
Germany (2004) (1)
Norway (2,4)
Finland (1)
France (3)
China (Shanghai) (1)
Poland (2004) (2)
Belgium (3)
United States (2001) (1,5)
Ireland (2,4)
Sweden (2)
United Kingdom (2,4)
Switzerland (2,4)
Denmark (2,4)
32
Statistics New Zealand (2005), Biotechnology in New Zealand,
33
New Zealand Biotech Sector Overview (August 2005), Asia Pacifi c Biotech Journal
34
OECD Biotechnology Statistics – 2006 p.28 (note: agriculture-derived processing is assigned to industrial-environmental applications)
16 Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research