Biotechnology Industry Facts

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• The biotechnology industry originated in the 1970s, based largely on a new recombinant DNA technique whose details were published in 1973 by Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of California, San Francisco. Recombinant DNA is a method of making proteins-such as human insulin and other therapies-in cultured cells under controlled manufacturing conditions. Boyer went on to co-found Genentech, which today is biotechnology's largest company by market capitalization.
• Biotechnology has created more than 200 new therapies and vaccines, including products to treat cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and autoimmune disorders.
• There are more than 400 biotech drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials targeting more than 200 diseases, including various cancers, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and arthritis.
• Biotechnology is responsible for hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood supply safe from the AIDS virus and detect other conditions early enough to be successfully treated. Home pregnancy tests are also biotechnology diagnostic products.
• Consumers are enjoying biotechnology foods such as papaya, soybeans and corn. Biopesticides and other agricultural products also are being used to improve our food supply and to reduce our dependence on conventional chemical pesticides.
• Environmental biotechnology products make it possible to clean up hazardous waste more efficiently by harnessing pollution-eating microbes without the use of caustic chemicals.
• Industrial biotechnology applications have led to cleaner processes that produce less waste and use less energy and water in such industrial sectors as chemicals, pulp and paper, textiles, food, energy, and metals and minerals. For example, most laundry detergents produced in the United States contain biotechnology-based enzymes.
• DNA fingerprinting, a biotech process, has dramatically improved criminal investigation and forensic medicine, as well as afforded significant advances in anthropology and wildlife management.
• The biotech industry is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• As of Dec. 31, 2005, there were 1,415 biotechnology companies in the United States, of which 329 were publicly held.
• Market capitalization, the total value of publicly traded biotech companies (U.S.) at market prices, was $410 billion as of Dec. 31, 2005.
• The biotechnology industry has mushroomed since 1992, with U.S. health-care biotech revenues increasing from $8 billion in 1992 to $50.7 billion in 2005.
• Biotechnology is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world. The U.S. biotech industry spent $19.8 billion on research and development in 2005.
• The top five biotech companies invested an average of $130,000 per employee in R&D in 2005.
• In 1982, recombinant human insulin became the first biotech therapy to earn FDA approval. The product was developed by Genentech and Eli Lilly and Co.
• Corporate partnering has been critical to biotech success. In 2005, biotech companies signed 564 new agreements with pharmaceutical firms and 354 with fellow biotechs, according to BioWorld.
• Most biotechnology companies are young companies developing their first products and depend on investor capital for survival. Biotechnology attracted more than $20 billion in financing in 2005 and has raised more than $100 billion since 2000.
• The biosciences-including not just biotechnology but all life sciences activities-employed 1.2 million people in the United States in 2004 and generated an additional 5.8 million related jobs.
• The average annual wage of U.S. bioscience workers was $65,775 in 2004, more than $26,000 greater than the average private sector annual wage.
• Bioethanol-made from crop wastes using biotech enzymes-could meet a quarter of U.S. energy needs by 2025.
• The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded in 1993 to represent biotechnology companies at the local, state, federal and international levels. As of December 2006, BIO's membership consisted of more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic centers, state and local associations and related enterprises.

Market Capitalization, 1994-2005*

* Amounts are in U.S. dollars in billions
Sources:
Ernst & Young LLP
BioWorld

U.S. Biotech Industry Statistics: 1994-2005*

*Amounts are U.S. dollars in billions.
Source:
Ernst & Young LLP, annual biotechnology industry reports, 1995–2006. Financial data based primarily on fiscal-year financial statements of publicly traded companies.

New Biotech Drug and Vaccine Approvals/ New Indication Approvals by Year

Source:
BIO

North American Biotech Companies by State and Province

Source:
Ernst & Young LLP

Total Financing, 1998-2005 (in billions of U.S. dollars)

Source:
BioWorld

Biotech Industry Financing, 2005

Total: $20,114.9 Million
(all figures in millions)

Source:
BioWorld

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