Biotechnology is driving innovation in medicines, agriculture and industry, and the European Commission is anxious to position the continent to make sure it gets a share of the economic development action the industry is likely to create along the way.
The European Commission's in-house research facility, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), is launching a study on the social, economic and environmental consequences and challenges presented by biotechnology. The Commission plans to draw on the study to update its Biotechnology Strategy of 2002 as it prepares for the Spring European Council 2007. And the EU is making it clear that biotech--with its educated, well-paid work force, concentration on cures and environmentally-friendly R&D activities--will figure prominently in its plans to promote sensible economic growth.
"This Commission has made biotechnology a high political priority," said Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen responsible for enterprise and industry policy. "If used properly, it has the potential to become a driving force in our knowledge-based economy."
And Europe has a lot to gain economically as well.
The EU biotech industry, having approximately the same number of companies as in the US sector, employs nearly half as many people, spends one-third as much on R&D, raises three or four times less venture capital and has access to four times less debt finance, says the EU. Nevertheless, the US industry generates only roughly twice the revenues of the EU sectors.
The main financing obstacle for EU biotech companies, says the Commission, seems to occur after a few years in the business cycle. At the moment at which companies should take off, many of them appear to run out of money. "Therefore it is important for European business to exploit the potential of biotechnology while addressing ethical and social concerns in close cooperation with third countries. This initiative aims at supporting research, competitiveness and innovation while safeguarding intellectual property in an increased electronic information network."
Another related document, the third Biotech report, outlines what needs to be done by the Commission and other EU institutions. It identifies which groups need to deliver on the aims set out in the Commission's strategy of 2002, which consists of policy orientations and a 30-point action plan.
For instance, these actions aim at:
- developing skills (by identifying education and training needs, linking education, industry and career guidance, staff exchanges, etc.)
- supporting research
- getting the EU intellectual property system in force; the cost of protecting intellectual property is four times higher in Europe than in the US
- networking all the various stakeholders working in biotechnology (technology platforms, web portal, EuroBioClusterSouth regional network)
- building on recommendations to the Commission from the Competitiveness in Biotechnology Advisory Group composed of representatives from industry and entrepreneurial academics.
John Carroll is editor of FierceBiotech.