The United States remains the global leader when it comes to biotechnology, with the largest concentration of publicly traded companies and associated revenue, according to a report to be released today by the accounting firm Ernst & Young.
Worldwide, biotechs continued to make strong gains from a slump between 2001 and 2003, the 19th annual “Beyond Borders: Global Biotechnology Report” states.
While revenues from biotechs nationwide were up 17 percent to $46 billion, companies in Europe and Asia are beginning to make significant strides.
“The United States will remain a biotech leader for some period of time, but clearly we see Europe making a comeback and the Far East making a push in this space,” said Richard Mejia, partner and managing director of life sciences for Ernst & Young.
“India, China, Japan and Singapore are the main source of where the growth is. They’re building infrastructure,” he said.
Income from Colorado-based public biotech companies was up 25 percent to $168 million in 2004, although the number of public companies in the state dropped 13 percent to seven. The drop was primarily due to acquisitions. Last year, Atrix Laboratories Inc. of Fort Collins was acquired by a Canadian pharmaceutical firm.
“The figures reflect the high quality of our companies,” said Denise Brown, executive director of the Colorado Bioscience Association. “We’re seeing the maturity of our young companies as attractive investments. And the longer that trend continues, the closer we get to the same critical mass those other clusters (in New England and the San Francisco Bay Area) have, and that’s the goal in Colorado.”
There was a surge in initial public offerings for U.S. biotechs in 2004, with 28 companies going public. Last year, U.S. biotechs raised $3.6 billion in venture capital funding, compared with $1.4 billion in Europe and $271 million in Canada.
“This was our second-strongest year ever (for venture capital.) The strongest was in 2000 when the Human Genome Project was announced,” Mejia said. “Then there was a slowdown in venture capital. In 2003, people started looking to invest at the same time many companies started to mature.”
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
A snapshot of the U.S. biotechnology industry
The United States has the largest concentration of public and private biotechnology companies in the world. Last year, the number of publicly traded companies increased by 5.1 percent, and revenues increased by 19.2 percent. Research-and-development spending at public companies increased by 15.7 percent, and the net loss increased by 33.1 percent.
The U.S. is home to 330 public and 1,114 private biotech companies.
America’s biotechnology industry accounts for 78 percent of global public revenues.
Revenues for both public and private companies in the U.S. in 2004 totaled $46 billion, an increase of 17.2 percent from 2003 revenues. Net loss for both public and private companies increased from $5.4 billion in 2003 to $6.4 billion in 2004.
In 2004, the U.S. biotechnology industry had 28 IPOs – up from seven in 2003 – which raised $1.6 billion in the stock market.
U.S.-based companies entered 337 biotech-biotech and biotech-pharmaceutical cross-border alliances last year, more than any other country.
The number of employees of publicly traded biotechnology companies increased by 10.1 percent in 2004 to 137,400.
The biotechnology sector secured 36 product approvals in 2004, slightly higher than 2003. When looking only at new molecular entities, it secured approvals for 20 new products.
There are about 230 biotechnology-derived therapeutics on the market, 55 under review and about 365 in Phase III clinical trials. There were 75 more products in Phase III clinical trials in December 2004 than December 2003, a 25 percent increase.
Source: Ernst & Young
