Based: Australia
R&D budget: $267 million (€195M)
Change from 08: +38.4%
Income spent on R&D: 6.7%

Last year Australia's CSL made a $3.1 billion attempt to acquire Talecris Biotherapeutics, but the deal could never pass the antitrust smell test at the FTC. Regulators felt the merger would unfairly limit competition in the market for plasma-derivative protein therapies. But CSL has pushed ahead, hoping to use the burst of demand for swine flu vaccine last year to help accelerate its growth plans. And it currently lists more than a dozen ongoing studies for a host of new vaccines and blood drugs.

Over the past three years CSL has been steadily ramping up its R&D efforts. And it isn't cheap. In 2008 the company spent AU$240 million on R&D. This year, CSL says the number should hit AU$343 million, a 41 percent spike.

To be sure, CSL has had its troubles this year--including regulatory citations for one of its vaccine plants and problems with side affects from a seasonal vaccine. But CSL has continued to push ahead on a number of R&D fronts, making it a rare south-of-the-equator player in the biotech industry.