Which Country Ranks Highest In Biotech Innovation

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 21 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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In a first of its kind study, Scientific American cut through the marketing messages to take a hard look at what countries across the globe are doing to bolster biotech programs within their borders. Many rankings compare Europe, Asia, and the US -- the Scientific American Worldview: A Global Biotechnology Perspective digs deeper, examining all the elements that impact overall biotech innovation. You might be surprised by some of the results.

Although it's probably no surprise that overall, the US had the highest final score, it did not come out on top for all five benchmarks: intellectual property, enterprise support, the intensity of a country's biotech activities, education/workforce, and infrastructure.

- Finland, Israel, Singapore, and Sweden came out on top in terms of the infrastructure available for biotechs.

- Singapore and Switzerland scored better than the US when it came to education/workforce.

- Iceland ranked highest on the "intensity" score, which measured the intensity -- public companies per capita, portion of overall R&D spending used for biotech, etc. -- of a country's biotech activities.

- Although the US came out on top in intellectual property protections, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the UK weren't too far behind. The small country of Denmark, however, leads the world in the number of biotech patents per member of the population.

To view a complete copy of the report, please visit http://www.saworldview.com.

Source
Scientific American