Why Production Technology is not a Measure of Competitivenessin the Biotechnologies

Why Production Technology is not a Measure of Competitiveness in the Biotechnologies Benedicte Callan Working Paper 86 May 1996 Generous support for this work was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Dr. Benedicte Callan is Associate Fellow in Industrial Policy, Economic Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. She was a BRIE Associate from Table of Contents I. Definition of Biotechnology II. The Industrial Organization of Biotechnology in the United States and Japan III. The American System of Innovation in Biotechnology IV. The Japanese System of Innovation in Biotechnology V. Competition in the Biotechnology Industries--The Present and Future of Production In the early 1980s biotechnology was heralded as biology's equivalent to the computer industry. A research intensive field, with applicability in a range of sectors, biotechnology was the darling of financial investors and scientific investigators alike. Hundreds of small companies sprouted up, creating new high- technology clusters, reminiscent of Silicon Valley, and promising fortunes to entrepreneurial biologists and their financial backers. The products they were to create--drugs such as interferon, disease resistant crops, and industrial enzymes- -and the methods by which they would be produced, were considered nothing short of revolutionary. Biotechnology captured the imagination of the industrialized world, and immediately comparisons of competitiveness were made among US, Japanese, and European firms. Forecasters predicted that biotechnology, like computers before it, though born in the US would be best exploited by the Japanese because of their deep pockets, production expertise, and penchant for iterative product and process improvements. Defying initial projections, the United States has for 20 years remained the leader in biotechnology. Two related explanations are offered in this chapter. First, despite Japanese hopes and US fears, production technology has not yet