U.S. Universities Continue to Drive Biotech Innovation
At the Bio International Convention 2007, which took place earlier this week in Boston, the iBridge Network (along with the Kauffman Foundation) made a strong presence before the assemblage. If you’ve ever had a chance to attend this conference, you know of its unique brand of energy and all out global marketing competition (which means you get to bring home a bagful of conference swag for the kids).
Along this line, one major study, released on Monday at the conference, showed good news for university-based life sciences research. (Here’s an article on this report in The Financial Times.)
The study, conducted by Marks and Clerk, a United Kingdom-based law firm, found that among the world’s top twenty patent filing entities, academia beats out corporate by 51 percent in regard to patent production between 2002-2006.
The report also showed the world’s top patent filers, over the last five years, are the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the University of California, the U.S. government, Genentech, Inc., and the University of Texas. And note that the top twenty list is comprised mostly of U.S. universities. In addition, The Financial Times notes the study found the most influential biotech-related patents (based on their citation frequency) are all held by U.S. universities (with MIT/Harvard in the lead).