Academia outpaces corporate biotech, report finds

Academia and the public sector are driving the advances in biotechnology, forging ahead of corporates, claims a new report by patent and trade mark attorneys Marks & Clerk. The report also highlights a 'major global disparity', with the academic advantage almost entirely enjoyed by the US, while Europe's institutions lag behind Eastern Asia.

The Biotechnology Report 2007 finds academic filing outpaced the commercial sector by 51% between 2002 and 2006 in a comparison of the top 20 patent filers. Only one corporate, US-based Genentech, makes it into the top five patent assignees overall.

The academic lead reflects badly on Europe, however, with Europe's leading universities entirely failing to make it into the top 20 academic filers. The academic list is dominated by the US-based institutions, with the exception of the Japan Science and Technology Agency and the University of Tokyo. This is in spite of the EU having the highest per capita number of science and engineering graduates in the world. The nearest European entrant is the University of Oxford, in the form of Isis Innovations Ltd, with 65 patent families to Harvard's 75.

Key patent applicants in biotechnology from academia totalled 4,008. Gareth Williams, Partner at Marks & Clerk and co-author of the report, said: 'The academic performance from Europe reflects badly on its leading institutions, which are still failing to translate their enormous skills base into a commercial reality.'

Corporate applications totalled 2,650.

The report highlights the emergence of Eastern Asia as a major force to be reckoned with for Europe. While filing activity in Europe is substantial, it is showing little growth other than from Denmark, which has trebled its filings, from 75 in 2002 to 225 in 2006.

Japan is now the single largest filer outside the US, having seen its filings rise by 250% between 2002 and 2006. The report also notes the emergence of China, which has grown its patent filings from almost zero in 2002 to around 50 in 2005.

'The astonishing level of growth from Japan is indicative of its commitment to putting serious investment into the biotechnology industry to broaden its technological expertise', said Williams.