Exploring the global landscape of biotech Innovation: preliminary insights from patent analysis

In this document, we focus on innovation in biotechnologies (biotech), as captured by patented invention worldwide. To this aim, we focus on international patents filed at multiple offices, at least one of which belonging to the IP5 consortium (see methodological box for more details). Moreover, we rely on expert knowledge collected by the OECD to select the inventions connected to biotech. The analysis aims to produce a bird’s eye view on the evolution of patenting in this technological area over time and its relevance across the geographical and technological dimensions. The key points emerging from this analysis are: Biotech patents represent around 5% of all the IP5 patents in the period 2001-2019. The US are by far the country with the highest share of biotech patents, the EU is lagging behind (with an increasing gap with the US) , while China seem to have started catching Up with the EU; The majority of the biotech patents are withe (industrials) and red (medical) biotechnologies. Japanese, Chinese, and EU applicants show relatively high specialization in white biotech patents, while UK and US applicants are relatively specialized in horizontal and red biotech patents. Germany and France have the highest number of biotech patent applicants in the EU, accounting for slightly over 50% of all EU biotech patents; The single biotechnology most patented is C12Q 1/66, "Measuring or testing processes involving luciferase", which alone represents 6.4% of all the biotech patents analysed; Preliminary analysis suggests that the competition among regions in biotech patents revolves around the number of patents in each of the main biotechnological domains, rather than the different types of biotechnologies patented.