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This is the first in a series of reports on the publications from bio-era's research project, Agricultural Biotechnology at the Crossroads, assessing the institutional and economic landscape of agricultural biotechnology industry, and the challenges ahead. This report in the series examines the evolving structure of the agbiotech industry, with reference to a proprietary bio-era research and development metric. This analysis documents and explains the restructuring and consolidation that has occurred in recent years, and highlights the vast opportunities created by recent discoveries and innovations in crop protection, food quality and nutrition, and industrial and pharmaceutical production processes.
The report quantifies a shift in research and development activity in recent years toward large agricultural biotechnology companies. While more that 180 organizations are involved in agricultural biotechnology, research and development activity is predominantly concentrated in a small number of large firms. The study breaks down R&D activity by company size and category and shows, on a relative basis, which sectors are aggressively investing in agricultural biotechnology R&D, and which sectors are bowing out.
- Which companies are active in the agricultural biotechnology industry, and why? How do the players stack up in R&D?
- How is the structure of the industry changing, and why?
- What are the driving forces that are shaping the economic future of the industry?
- What significant new technologies are emerging, and how will they affect the structure of the industry?
- Agricultural biotechnology and farm sector industry executives
- Farmers, food processors and others in the commercial food supply chain
- Consumer environmental groups, universities and other public-sector research programs evaluating genetically engineered products
- Federal, state and international agencies involved in legislating, regulating and enforcing regulations surrounding genetically modified organisms and other biotechnological applications
- Analysts, financiers, law firms, pr firms and consultants in the Agriculture, food and biotechnology industries
| INTRODUCTION | | | MARKET PERFORMANCE | | | FORCES SHAPING THE OUTLOOK | | | CHANGING INDUSTRY STRUCTURE | | | R&D TRENDS AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS | |
The structure of the agricultural biotechnology industry is evolving rapidly in response to competitive pressures and the high costs and risks of developing new products. Integrated agrochemical and seed companies have been the driving force for research and development in recent years, accounting for the majority of R&D output measures. These companies have the research capabilities, financial strength, and complementary intellectual property assets to support product development cycles that span 6-12 years.
Based on research and development efforts over the past decade, biotechnology companies are now moving toward commercialization of hundreds of new plant varieties – including second-generation crop protection traits, biopharmaceuticals, and biomaterials. Yet political and institutional opposition to genetically modified organisms remains strong in some markets, especially in Europe. Accordingly, companies in this sector are being forced to...
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