Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
(Pray et al., 2006) and be significantly higher in many developing countries
(Falck-Zepeda and Cohen, 2006).
Even given the increasing concentration of the seed industry with the
advent of agricultural biotechnology, many different types of institutions may
perform crop biotechnology research: public research institutions which may
focus on more basic research (for example on research tools, in noncommer-
cial model plants (e.g.,
arabidopsis
) to understand gene function, or for crops
which are not served by the private sector); small or medium-sized biotech-
nology companies that may or may not specialize in crop biotechnology; large
seed companies; and integrated seed-chemical companies currently
exemplified by the Big 6.
Small and Medium-Size Biotechnology Companies
Biotechnology companies specialize in research tools, identification and
development of traits, or both. Many of these companies have been high-risk
startups, depending on venture capital or “angel” investors, and turnover
among these companies has been rapid. Significant entry into the marketplace
began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but in recent years, exits have
outnumbered entrants. We identified 77 small and medium-sized companies
17
that have entered the agricultural biotechnology market since 1979 (fig. 2.3).
All of these companies had agriculture as their primary business segment, and
all but eight focused on crop biotechnology (these eight focused on animal
biotechnology). Just over 30 companies are active as of 2008. Of the exits
from the industry, about three-quarters were the result of acquisition and the
remainder was due to bankruptcy or divestment.
In nearly all cases, we can only make estimates of the research investment
by these firms, so the total estimated research expenditure by small biotech-
nology companies essentially provides the same information as a count of the
number of active companies. In recent years, the total research investment of
these companies is estimated to be about 5 percent or less of the total private-
sector investment in seed/biotechnology research. Nonetheless, these compa-
nies developed some key agricultural biotechnology products, even though
other companies eventually took the products to final market. For example,
acquisitions of Agracetus and Calgene by Monsanto; Mogen by the Advanta
group (now Syngenta); Mycogen by Dow; Plant Genetic Systems by AgrEvo
(now Bayer, through Aventis); and DNA Plant Technologies by Seminis (now
