Biotechnology Current Trends

Biotechnology Current Trends

Biotechnology Key Trends - Higher growth will be continued on Biotechnology sector during the next four years, around 14% annually. - Asia pacific countries are the most promising to convert the leaders in the biotechnology sector. - Western countries will have to create more competitive new products against the Asian Pacific emerging markets products. - Smaller companies in the biotech sector must learn to manage alliances with better established, international firms. - Biotech Investment will multiply the investor s earnings.

1. Current Trends on Biotechnology Sector Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing industries; in the last decade the biotechnology industry has experienced very high growth, that s why so many countries and regions have set up incentives to attract more biotechnology companies. In the last few decades we have seen extraordinary advances in this emerging industrial sector, biotechnology. Firms that operate in this profoundly innovative and highly competitive environment need future leaders to meet the challenges as the use of extremely sophisticated technology ensures constant evolution. The driving forces that are driving the countries and regions with the highest degree of development and growth around the world in the biotechnology sector are closely related to: - Strong Government Support, which facilitates and enables the viability for development of the sector. - Human Resources - Bio diversity - Infrastructure - Low Cost, which allows a higher output and higher incomes. 1.1 Emerging Sub Sector We highlight some sub sectors within the biotechnology sector, which could highlight and develop many new products to drive further growth of the biotechnology sector, these sectors, which we call emerging sectors are: - Contract Research/ Manufacturing - Vaccines - Generics - Stem Cell Research - Nanotechnology - Bioinformatics Asian countries are creating competitive niches in the vaccine space by developing vaccines at more affordable price. Using pioneering technologies and efficient production methods, companies such as China s Sinovac Biotech and India s Bharat Biotech have successfully developer vaccine for diseases such as Hepatitis A and B at a fraction of western price. Western companies are already recognizing that the region will play an increasingly important role in the global vaccine market and are making investment and forming alliance with Asian companies.

1.2 Future Outlook - Increase Government Support - Role of private sector - Improved Intellectual Property Regime - Mergers and Acquisitions - Infrastructure Improvement - Sustained Growth in revenue The Asian Government has identified biotechnology as a key industry and as a result, most of these countries have allotted a substantial amount of cash from their yearly budget for the growth of their biotechnology industry. For example, the Singapore government has allocated a budget of close to US$8 billion for the 5 year period from 2006 to 2010 to further strengthen research and development (R&D) capabilities in the country. This is almost double the Government's R&D budget for 2001 to 2005. Not only has the government increase their funds, but has also introduced many incentives and benefits for company who want to invest in the industry. Countries in the Asia Pacific region were late starters in the biotechnology market. However, the industry is growing much faster than the industries in North America and Europe, primarily due to low costs, strong government support, large talent pool and biodiversity. In future both India and China are expected to emerge as leading players in the global biotechnology market. Japan, China, and Australia are the three largest biotechnology markets in the Asia Pacific region, with combined market share of around 79% in 2007. The medical biotechnology sector presently accounts for the highest share in the overall market Japan remains the largest biotech market in the region; therefore, the country represents a more mature market as compared to other neighboring markets. China and India, with low costs and big talent pool, are likely to emerge as the most potential biotech research and manufacturing outsourcing destinations in the future. Asia Pacific is expected to become a major destination for stem cell research and biogeneric manufacturing.

1.3 Business Perspective Biotech is the name given to an important sector of the economy, with more than 4,275 active companies (of which 710 are public, with aggregate market cap of USD 492bn and global revenues of USD86 bn, growing at 14% annually) related not only through their technology base but also through creative new strategies and business models. We find biotechnology in the production of foodstuffs and nutritional products where the industry is learning to more effectively manage important communication issues, such as the fear of potential risks to health or the environment from genetically engineered crops among the public. As products from those approaches are reaching the markets, biotech is starting to contribute significantly to the convergence of the pharma and nutrition sectors in a growing nutraceutical field. Finally, biotechnology is already having an impact on industrial processes and environmental management. In the field of energy, long term sustainability of an economy based on biofuels is the goal of R&D activities promoted by increasingly demanding policy mandates. In the biomedical sector, new mechanisms are emerging to facilitate the trade of a variety of intellectual assets (e.g. data, materials, expertise, services). Such knowledge markets encourage knowledge sharing and creation; they may also increase the speed and efficiency with which health related research is translated into innovative goods and services. Biofuels are already a reality in countries such as Brazil and would revolutionize the world economy if they were to reach into the global fuels markets. The challenge here is to develop technology that will use inexpensive cellulose byproducts and be competitive even with lower oil prices and in the absence of subsidies, but none of this is intrinsically beyond the grasp of biotechnology. Biotech barely makes sense if not from a global perspective, and smaller companies in the biotech sector learn to manage alliances with better established, international firms, to achieve efficient marketing and commercialization. We are starting to see alliances between two biotech firms for this purpose. Some analysts no longer watch exclusively for classical pharma buying up biotech companies but point out that the biotech sector could eventually engulf the pharma sector rather than the other way around. As we can see, cross fertilization and inter marriage is rapidly closing the gap between these sectors. Whatever happens, the impact of biotechnology on the economy is likely to increase fast, and making distinctions between classical (whether pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, nutrition or cosmetics companies) and biotech is not going to be useful for very long, as these two sectors converge. In the final analysis, attracting and retaining the right people that can work effectively in multidisciplinary teams is the only difference that will matter.

In terms of contribution to the society, the biotech sector stands in the top league. For an investment of one dollar, this sector is giving back 1.25 dollar to the company and 50 cents to the society. 25 per cent of the benefits are being ploughed back to the society. Two thirds of the income of this sector is going for the HR costs and thus it is a major job creator. 1 Jonathan Aragonez Economist / Investment Foresight Center (IFC) FDI Global Market Intelligence and Foresight Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (CEI RD) 2009 1 Nobel Laureate Prof. Sidney Altman Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University,