A new report released by Beijing-based CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for
Biotechnology says that the developing world is achieving significant growth
in a broad cross-section of biotechnology fields, many of them directly tied
to food production, health, and other dimensions of human well-being.



Biotechnology in Developing Countries: Growth and Competitiveness is the
first extensive document summarizing the development status of a specific
technology area in the developing world, according to Bai Chunli, president
of both CAS and TWAS. He added that "it provides a strong, valuable
assessment of biotechnology activities in developing countries, as measured
in scientific publications and patents."

The report is a broad survey of research and development work from 2005 to
2014. Its major findings include:



. Biotechnology research grew steadily, with a 117% increase in published
studies. However, biotechnology research from the developing world is less
cited in other research papers - only about 83% as much.



. Over 85% of the biotech papers that were co-authored by
science-and-technology lagging countries resulted from international
collaborations. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa in particular benefited from
international collaboration, resulting in a notably high impact.



. Patent filings in the developing world have been most active in industry,
food and environmental biotechnology sectors. Most of those patents have
been new enzymes, totalling 79,694 - comprising of more than 40% of the
overall patents.



. China leads in biotechnology papers produced in the ten-year period with
78,263, followed by India with 24,081 and Brazil with 17,769. It also leads
all countries with 149,339 patent families, followed by India with 15,420
and Mexico with 14,574.



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