Breakthroughs in the fields of medical devices, bioengineering and biomechanical technologies (“biotech”) have brought life-changing healthcare options to doctors and patients as well as innovations in areas such as agriculture and manufacturing. Biotech has brought us everything from recombinant DNA technology for creating insulin and insecticide resistant crops to modern stem cell research. The past few decades’ advances in computing, genetics, and nanotechnology have stimulated companies and researchers to bring an enormous amount of truly innovative biotech solutions to the marketplace.
Though the U.S. has seen its market dominance falter in areas such as manufacturing and even high-tech, the U.S. biotech industry has enjoyed a distinct monopoly as the world leader in biotech progress and production. Established biotech companies have witnessed incredible recent growth but not without competition from a vast array of startups. In 1992, the U.S. biotech industry reported $8 billion in revenue and that number has mushroomed to over $88 billion in 2008. With thousands of biotech companies, over 350 of them public, and a staggering percentage of revenues reinvested into R&D, it’s easy to see why the biotech industry has only begun to grow.
As the world’s living standards continue to rise, emerging markets will increase their presence in the global healthcare industry which often makes up 10% or more of the gross domestic product in developed countries. The future for biotech, the fastest growing segment of healthcare, holds many things in store and the vast breadth of the industry means that new disciplines and areas of research are maturing every day. For several years now, the biotech industry has produced more new medicines than the giant pharmaceutical industry. The enormous investment of money and time in biotech R&D increases the risk associated with patent infringement and the value of strong intellectual property strategies.
Although biotech is bigger than it’s ever been, growth has recently subsided. The recent financial crisis has especially hurt the U.S. biotech industry which has funded its highly accelerated growth through private equity investing and public stock offerings. Nevertheless, the growth of biotech is fundamentally rooted in an ever-increasing demand for better and faster medical solutions both by an aging American population and a world population quickly expecting access to the latest advances in biotech healthcare. China and India’s biotech industries have already grown to multi-billion dollar industries that will serve the two biggest markets in the world.
As the biotech industry moves toward global maturity, new inventions and innovations will continue to occur. All of these developments point to increasing activity in the laws, business transactions, and disputes concerning IP in the biotech industry. Strong patent rights are imperative to encourage investments in R&D and for commercialization of biotechnology. Small firms rely on patent rights to build businesses around biotechnology. Patent rights also encourage established manufacturers to invest in these new technologies to improve existing product lines. |
