Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
US$3.7 billion respectively (Ernst & Young, 2010). Given the
significant size of the US industry in comparison to those elsewhere,
it is hardly surprising that governments around the world are
working on building strategies that would help local industries
mimic the US biotechnology industry.
The main approach to emulating the success of the US industry
adopted by governments has been to identify the successful indicators
of commercialization and to try to repeat those conditions at home.
In the last seven years governments in the UK, Australia, Canada,
India, China and Singapore have adopted precisely this method in an
attempt to support specific development in the stem cell industries.
More broadly, leveraging up national competitive performance of
biotechnology in general is also thought to have a flow on effect in
enhancing the performance of the stem cell sciences. Essentially, the
rationale is that with the right conditions in place, commercial
success will happen as a matter of course.
Whether or not this approach is effective has largely remained
untested. Some of the data in Ernst & Young's (2010)
Beyond
Borders Report
on the global biotechnology industry seems to
indicate that while the overall components of innovation are relatively
similar for biotechnology in each country, there are country-specific
factors that challenge the idea that there is one, uniform commercial
model. For instance, one of the industry commentators asked to
identify what the strengths are of Indian biotechnology in the
Beyond Borders Report
(2010) highlights the different funding
models used in the US and India as a significant point of divergence.
Whereas US biotech is heavily dependent on venture capital
investment and its short-term time frames, the commentator argues
that Indian biotechnology is debt-financed and thus the only
requirement is repaying creditors over a long-term (Ernst & Young,
2010). Exactly what impact these differences might have on the
overall survival and competitiveness of biotechnology companies in
each of these locations though is difficult to determine.
Despite some of these queries about whether or not transplanting
the successful elements of one industry into another country actually
works, the key consideration must focus on addressing exactly what
it takes to model US biotechnology. Central to addressing this
