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Biotechnology in the Investment Forefront
Investments in biotechnology continue to grow in the world. According to data from Ernst & Young, American companies attracted $21.4 billion, and European companies $7.5 billion. The only time indicators were higher was in 2000, during the “dot.com” bubble and human genome mapping. Unlike the clearly speculative situation at that time, investment in biotechnology today is not explosive but gradual. The fundamental indicators of the companies in that sector are comparatively strong. The E&Y report notes that volume of net losses in the industry worldwide has fallen from $7.4 billion in 2006 to $2.7 billion in 2007.
The differences from the 2000 boom are clear. The majority of investments in biotech in Europe is made in relatively mature companies in the late stages of financing. That is in part a reflection of the technological progress of the sector, which allows the commercialization of new technologies, especially in medicine and pharmacology. An analogical situation can be observed in the United States, but with one significant difference. There, the share of venture investment is larger, as is investment in bioenergy, in particular, second-generation biofuels that use not food cultures as raw material but waste from food production.
According to E&Y’s Dmitry Khalilov, Russia’s share in the world market for biotechnology production is less than 1 percent. Considering the level of Russian science and Russia’s place in the world economy, its share could be much greater. It is still difficult to say whether the draft conception of the Eurasian Economic Community interstate target program Innovative Biotechnology, approved on May 19, will help. It entails the cooperation of Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh and Tajik scientists and entrepreneurs to develop innovations in biotechnology. It can be stated, however, that biotechnology looks like as attractive as nanotechnology in Russia, at least at the governmental level.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 22, 2008
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