Importance of Biotechnology in the Development of Functional Foods in Emerging Countries

This chapter seeks to highlight the qualities of functional foods, in relation to those called traditional foods and, from this perspective, the contribution that the use of techniques based on biotechnology can provide to increase the quality of foods, while seeking to reduce diseases derived from a bad or insufficient nutrition in the population. To that end, a brief overview has been prepared on the diverse categories of healthy foods, before delving deeper into the definitions of functional foods. This paper addresses the existing relation and impact of using biotechnology for processing them and, at the same time, it provides a short description of the potential market for functional foods in Chile.

Institutions as Enablers of Science-Based Industries

Biotechnology impacts across different industrial uses of the life sciences, and has acquired a relevant role in addressing challenges faced by world economies such as those related to food, water, energy and healthcare provision. Many governments in emerging economies looking to exploit some of the opportunities provided by advances in biotechnology design institutional frameworks to cope and develop this complex science-based industry. In this context, a country´s science, technology and innovation institutional structure plays a key role in shaping the outcomes, commercialization, investments, and alliance strategies of this particular industry. This chapter builds on the innovation systems perspective to describe how institutions act as enabling factors for innovation and research in biotechnology. These factors are, as defined by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, infrastructure for R&D, human capital, intellectual property protection, regulatory environment, technology transfer frameworks, market, and commercial incentives.

Is Collaboration Important at All Stages of the Biotechnology Product Development Process?

Using the four Biotechnology Uses and Development surveys of Statistics Canada, the chapter examine the importance of collaborating with firms and public institutions at various stages of product development, from research and development to clinical trials and then on to production and commercialization. The models examine the propensity to have products at a particular stage of development using instrumental variables probit regressions. This chapter finds that while small firms do not benefit from collaborating with firms at the research and development stage, during the clinical trials and in the production phases, collaborating with firms has a strong positive effect. The factors that affect the R&D phase are R&D expenditures, an important IP strategy, revenues from contracts and to some extent contracting out some innovation activities. In later stages of the development process, the number of patents and the diversity of the biotechnology employment team play a more crucial role.

A Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The cornerstone of China's strategy for developing high-technology activities is construction of scientific parks to create conditions emulating the successful High-technology clusters in the West. This is a comparative case study of biotechnology clusters in Guangdong province and the better documented ones in Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzhen. The experience of the government-controlled and supported ‘construction' and evolution of biotechnology clusters in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province is compared with high-tech clustering in the West. The paper documents the existence and performance of the hitherto largely ignored Guangzhou biopharmaceutical cluster. Despite the rapid development of biopharmaceutical activities in Guangdong province, biotechnology is not yet a significant high-tech/high value-added alternative to Guangdong's specialization the labor-intensive export industries.

Regional Innovation Pattern

Beijing biopharmaceutical industrial base are currently still in its infancy, innovation network and collaborative innovation system within pharmaceutical industrial clusters still have many problems, and cluster-based technology innovation mechanism and pattern needs further exploration. This study focuses on Beijing pharmaceutical industry clusters, and industry cluster theory, learning theory, and regional innovation system theory apply to the practice of Beijing pharmaceutical industrial bases. The study discusses on the related concepts of technology learning, and establishes a technology learning network among industry clusters, and presents a technological learning system under the cluster network on the basis of existing learning theory. According to characteristics of biopharmaceutical industry, the study develops a basic framework of regional innovation for biopharmaceutical industry clusters, and proposes synergistic development strategies of Beijing north and south pharmaceutical industry clusters.

Corporate Social Responsibility of Pharmaceutical Industry Towards Access to Medicine: A Case Study of GlaxoSmithKline

India has changed its patent policy in 2005. It was compliance to WTO TRIPs provision and after this there was prohibition on process or generic manufacturing. India is the biggest supplier of affordable generic medicines and this patent protection is said to be beneficial to novel drug manufacturing countries. The generic drugs can be a differentiation factor between lives starting point and the ending point for millions of people in developing countries. This remains an obstacle to inexpensive generic medicines which results in devastating impact on the poorer people. These patent laws allow large MNC's to place ‘profits over people'. World Health Organisation report price of medicines are important for maintaining the affordability and access of the medicines. This research evaluates the strategies and practices of Glaxo Smith Kline in contribution towards the access to medicines and their contribution of corporate social responsibility in India.

What Influences the Growth of Canadian Biotechnology Firms?

This chapter examines the influence of firm characteristics on the growth of all Canadian biotechnology firms. Data collected by Statistics Canada from four Biotechnology Uses and Development Surveys (1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005) characterise the size, origin, contracts, IP, collaboration, financing, product development stage, tax credits of Canadian biotechnology firms, while employment data from the Business Register of the organisation provides the size of firms beyond 2005. Results show the importance of collaboration for exploration (knowledge) purposes, the importance of alliances for exploitation (commercialization) purposes for firms with rapid growth. Furthermore, a good product development process that brings products through regulation towards commercialization has a positive impact on firm growth and so does R&D expenses.

The Turkish Biotechnology System

This chapter empirically examines biotechnology innovation system in order to present the concerns of developing countries. Even though it is not possible to create standard prescriptions across countries, this paper aims to develop a solid understanding of how biotechnology and institutions co-evolve that might shed light to innovation policy issues for biotechnology across developing countries. The immediate goal is the Turkish policy makers but it will surely have policy implications for developing countries in general. Through mapping innovation processes/functions over time, it is possible to develop insights of the dynamics of innovation systems. This mapping is carried out for the Turkish biotechnology system, and the findings are summarized.

Entrepreneurial Approach to Biotechnology Policies and Development in India

Biotechnology is globally recognized as a rapidly emerging and far-reaching technology. It is aptly called “technology of hope”, as its promising to be powerful enabling technology that can revolutionize agriculture, healthcare, industrial processing and environmental sustainability. The recent advances in life sciences unfold a scenario energized and driven by the new tools of biotechnology. There are number of therapeutic biotech drugs and vaccines that are marketed and many are in clinical development. In addition, there are a large number of agro-biotech and industrial biotech products that have enormously helped mankind. Biotechnology sector in India is gaining global visibility and tracked for emerging investment opportunities. Through in depth analysis based on published reports and secondary data with grounded theory approach the chapter aims not only to trace the development of biotechnology and reviews polices but also to elucidate through cases the entrepreneurial approach adopted for biotechnology development in India.

Nutraceutical Industry with the Collaboration of Biotechnology and Nutrigenomics Engineering

This article highlights the relevance of the nutraceutical industry and the implication of biotechnology and nutrigenomics in the field of human health, to increase the quality and range of scope of their products. People in the world take every day functional foods constituted by nutraceutical ingredients. Only in the United States, 47% of men and 50% of women take daily vitamin complexes, inorganic nutrients and other food supplements that are made from nutraceutical ingredients. The article analyzes the nutraceutical industry in the leading countries worldwide. The number of existing companies in this sector is examined, in addition to analyzing the intellectual property generated by this industry. At the same time, it deepens in the number of patents assigned to the enterprises and the scientific publications consigned to each author (particularly to “star scientist”) is observed. Finally, the regulations and policies concerning nutraceuticals products of the different countries are analyzed.