EU bio-tech investments lag behind the US

Investment in life sciences and biotech-nology technologies is growing in the EU, but the Union is still lagging behind the US.

This is the conclusion of a report on life sciences and biotech-nology, to be presented by the European Commission next Wednesday (11 April). A spokesman for the Commission said the mid-term review of the 2002 life science and biotechnology strategy proved that life sciences and biotechnology were of great importance to the EU today, although national interest in the different biosciences varies.

"Biosciences not only play an important role in the discovery of new medicines, therapies and vaccines," said the spokesman, "but they offer the prospects as well of lower energy and water consumption, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reduced dependence on petroleum."

The Commission is expected to report steady growth in health biotechnology, which covers the development of new enzyme-based medicines and treatments. Interest in industrial biotech-nologies, including the possibility of developing more efficient biofuels, is also high.

The development of these modern technologies will be shown to be slower in the 12 countries which have joined the EU since 2004 than in the older member states.

More than 2,000 bioscience companies, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have been created in Europe since the late-1990s. The majority are in the health and industrial biotechnology sectors.

The development of green biotechnology - the genetic modification of plants - is however still slowed by public opposition.

The report will offer recommendations to increase implementation of the strategy’s ‘50-point plan’ ahead of a 2010 deadline.

It will also look at how EU research money has been spent across the various sectors and suggest ways of sharing life science and biotech-nology research results.

Industry has welcomed the review as a chance to turn EU attention on biosciences.

"We are grateful for all efforts to improve the situation in these sectors and we hope the mid-term review will get us there," said Johan van Hemelrijck of industry umbrella group Europabio. "Failure to properly promote biosciences only sows the seed of doubt in the mind of entrepreneurs."

Investment in life sciences and biotech-nology technologies is growing in the EU, but the Union is still lagging behind the US.