41 business R&D in biotechnology

Intramural business enterprise expenditure on R&D (BERD) in the field of biotechnology totalled €2.7 billion, accounting for around 9% of BERD. This proportion has remained stable since 2006. The proportion of firms active in this field of research increased by one percentage point in one year to 11% in 2012. Firms that specialise in biotechnology are mostly small enterprises.

In 2012, firms spent a total of €2.7 billion on R&D in biotechnology, equivalent to 9% of total business enterprise expenditure on R&D within France (table 41.01 and chart 41.02). This proportion remained stable between 2011 and 2012. In terms of the number of firms, 11% of all firms carrying out R&D in France had some involvement in this field (one percentage point more than in 2011).

Active biotechnology firms devoted on average €1.4 million to R&D in this field, equivalent to 57% of their intramural R&D expenditure.

In addition to this targeted expenditure, active biotechnology firms also made a significant contribution to other fields of research, investing a total of €2.1 billion in 2012.

Two thirds of active biotechnology firms are dedicated, in other words they devote at least 75% of their intramural expenditure on R&D to it. Dedicated biotechnology firms spent nine tenths of all expenditure in biotechnology within France, representing a total of €2.5 billion in investment. In practice, these dedicated firms devoted almost all of their intramural R&D expenditure (98%) to R&D in biotechnology.

R&D in biotechnology is carried out by small companies (chart 41.03): 58% of active biotechnology firms and nearly 66% of dedicated firms employed fewer than 20 people. Small firms became more predominant in comparison with the previous financial year. By contrast, overall, only half of all firms that carry out R&D fell within this category of having fewer than 20 employees. Conversely, the ‘250 or more employees’ category included only 5% of all dedicated biotechnology firms, as compared with 10% of active firms and 10% of all companies that carry out R&D.

The average number of employees for dedicated firms was less than 80 (74 in 2012), as compared with 153 for active firms and 210 for firms that carry out R&D (table 41.01).

The ‘Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations’ remained the main research branch investing in this field in 2012, accounting for 65% of R&D expenditure in biotechnology (chart 41.04), although this did represent a fall of 3 percentage points in comparison with 2011. By contrast, in terms of the number of firms, this branch only included 11% of active biotechnology firms, as compared with just over 10% in 2011. The ‘Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations’ and ‘Professional, scientific and technical activities’ branches together accounted for more than three quarters (nearly 78%) of all R&D expenditure allocated to the ‘biotechnology’ field. Although the latter group accounted for much less expenditure, it did include a higher proportion of active firms (40% in 2012).

Stéphane Montenache