Financing forefront technology entrepreneurship. Issues concerning biotechnology

Abstract

This paper surveys financial issues that characterise the US biotechnology scenario. They regard public institutions and companies. The financing approaches available to New Biotechnology Firms (NBFs) force them to operate in a weak competitive position vis-?-vis large companies. Allowing NBFs to somewhat uncouple their investment decisions from the impact on company balance sheet, could give a fundamental contribution to enhance their competitive capacity and fully exploit their potential. The scheme of an off-balance-sheet financing is proposed. It is of the type that regulated the Research and Development Project Limited Partnership (RDLP) in the USA till 1986 when its tax benefits were cancelled by the Tax Reform Act. After 1986, NBFs have proposed to financial markets substitutes for RDLPs, which have proved to be much less interesting to investors. Restoring the rules originally governing RDLPs could be a strategically winning move at the present stage of the biotechogenetic revolution in the USA. An earlier and shorter version of this paper was presented by the author at the Unido sponsored 14th International Conference on Management of Technology, track 12 The Integration of Technology and Business Strategies, IAMOT 2005, Vienna, Austria, May 2005.