Introduction: promoting global health through biotechnology

Abstract

term ‘health biotechnology’ evokes images of research-intensive universities such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as initial public offerings on NASDAQ. Ty pically, we don’t think about biotechnology in connection with health solutions for poor people in developing countries. Still, as has been demonstrated in a technology foresight exercise, biotechnology can potentially be applied to a wide spectrum of health problems all over the world 1 .S uccessful research and development in health biotechnology is taking place in several countries that typically are classified as lower income countries or developing countries. With a view to understanding these successes and reproducing them more widely in the developing world, we have undertaken a detailed study of health biotechnology development in seven countries. This supplement reports the results of a 3-year study of health biotechnology innovation systems in Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, South Africa and South Korea. When compared with industrially advanced nations, the seven countries in this study are each at a different stage of economic development, but they can generally be considered ‘innovating developing countries’ (IDCs) 2 . Our objective was to identify and analyze the conditions encouraging successful development of health biotechnologies in developing countries. Ultimately, we want to identify lessons on how these countries have been able to build up capacity in health biotechnology. These lessons can potentially be put to use in other developing countries that so far have not succeeded in promoting biotechnology development, but may also be of relevance to industrially advanced nations. This