OECD Case Study on Innovation: the Finnish Biotechnology Innovation System
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OECD Case Study on Innovation: The Finnish Biotechnology Innovation System Authors: Gabriela von Blankenfeld-Enkvist Malin Brännback Riitta Söderlund Marin Petrov INNOMARKET Turku School of Economics and Business Administration Business Research and Development Centre Rehtorinpellonkatu 3 FIN-20500 Turku Finland http://www.tukkk.fi/innomarket/ January 2004 Contents 1 Introduction _____________________________________________________4 1.1 Background _________________________________________________4 1.2 Goals of the research _________________________________________5 1.3 Approach ___________________________________________________7 1.4 Country characteristics _______________________________________8 1.4.1 General figures and indicators _______________________________8 1.4.2 Main industries__________________________________________11 1.4.3 Size and structure of the pharmaceutical industry _______________12 2 Overview of national R&D technology and innovation policies ___________15 2.1 Introduction________________________________________________15 2.2 Main Actors in Policy Making and Policy Programme Management _17 2.2.1 Policy making organisations________________________________18 2.2.2 Policy management organisations____________________________18 2.2.3 Actors contributing to policy implementation __________________20 2.3 Main policies _______________________________________________22 2.3.1 Policies for knowledge-based support ________________________22 2.3.2 Policies for commercialisation support________________________26 2.3.3 Policies with a socio-economic or ethical dimension_____________28 3 Structure and dynamics of the biopharma system ______________________29 3.1 National public R&D system __________________________________29 3.2 Business system _____________________________________________30 3.2.1 Biotechnology companies and characteristics __________________30 3.2.2 R&D co-operation________________________________________33 3.2.3 International dimension of the system ________________________35 3.3 Performance of the system ____________________________________37 3.3.1 Educational output_______________________________________37 3.3.2 Publication performance ___________________________________38 3.3.3 Patenting performance ____________________________________42 4 Innovation barriers and drivers_____________________________________44 4.1 Knowledge sources __________________________________________44 4.2 Human Resources ___________________________________________46 4.3 Financing __________________________________________________46 4.3.1 Public funds and framework conditions _______________________47 4.3.2 Public R&D funding ______________________________________49 4.3.3 Public R&D funding to biotechnology ________________________50 4.3.4 Taxation _______________________________________________54 4.3.5 Venture Capital financing__________________________________55 4.4 Entrepreneurship ___________________________________________59 4.5 Laws and regulations influencing the biopharmaceutical industry___62 4.5.1 Regulations touching on medical research _____________________62 4.5.2 Protection of Intellectual Property Rights______________________67 2 4.5.3 Ownership of Research Results _____________________________70 5 Markets________________________________________________________74 5.1 Background ________________________________________________74 5.2 Organisation of national health care system _____________________76 5.2.1 Health care system _______________________________________76 5.2.2 Health care expenditure ___________________________________78 5.2.3 Financing health care _____________________________________80 5.2.4 National Health Insurance__________________________________80 5.2.5 From marketing authorisation to sales of medicines _____________82 5.3 Role of users________________________________________________85 5.4 Lead market feature _________________________________________86 5.5 Role of demand _____________________________________________86 5.6 Socio-economic/ethical aspects (J38-39) _________________________87 6 Synthesis and conclusion on research questions _______________________91 3 1 Introduction 1.1 Background “When an inventor in Silicon Valley opens his garage door to show off his latest idea, he has 50% of the world market in front of him. When an in inventor in Finland opens his garage door, he faces three feet of snow.” J.O. Nieminen, CEO of Nokia Mobira, 1984 The process of translating a basic science invention into a commercially viable innovation is a complex process and getting even more so. Both markets and technologies are becoming increasingly complex. The rapid advance of the scientific frontier and the increasing breadth and depth of knowledge available across all scientific fields have contributed to this acceleration of technological complexity. Today, even large corporations are limited in their capability to bring together all the skills and resources required for in-house development and commercialisation of science-based technologies. Factors such as the shortening of product life cycles and the combination of several technologies within a single product or service mean that the company increasingly depends on external inputs, in the form of skills, advice, proprietary technologies, cooperation networks, for successful innovation. Measured in relation to GDP, Europe devotes more resources to academic research than either the United States or Japan, and research in Europe is highly diversified. However, Europe performs significantly worse in translating research into innovation, also described as the “European paradox”: an impressive quantity and quality in R&D but a less impressive performance in terms of innovation. One important reason might be that innovation policies in Europe focus more on technological innovation and the generation of knew ideas and knowledge. It can be speculated, however, that limits to growth might not lie as much in the ability to generate new ideas, but in the ability to process an abundance of potentially new seed ideas into usable forms. In addition, other forms of innovation, as social, organizational or market innovation might be as important to support economic growth. Therefore, weaknesses in organisational, presentational, value added and business model innovation might be as relevant to the slow pace of progress towards the Lisbon goals as the lower level of business R&D spending. Although the systemic model of innovation is now clearly prevailing, many measures put into practice to promote innovation are still based on the linear view, implicitly assuming a causal and linear relationship between input and output. Nevertheless, the pharmaceutical sector has demonstrated over the last years that increases in R&D spending do not necessarily translate into increased performance and productivity. One further problem is that performance indicators for non-technological forms of innovation, and market factors, are at present less well captured by innovation statistics, and less subject to analysis, than those linked to research. This might lead to a further focus on input measures rather than outcome indicators. It can be speculated that the systemic model has yet to be fully reflected in the way that innovation policy is devised and implemented, monitored and evaluated. Innovation and innovation policies in biotechnology is therefore a very complex, multidimensional issue and many problems facing companies, policy makers, public and private investors cannot be fixed in an easy, straight-forward way due to the 4 complex, multidimensional “nature” of innovation, and no straight- forward policy recommendations can therefore be offered. However, we will try to describe the frame and the challenges the National innovation system has to face in Finland to realize the promises Biotechnology has the potential to fulfil: to improve health and quality of life, and to support a sustainable economic development. As more research is being performed,the view on innovation and innovation systems is constantly evolving. Since even terms as “invention” and “innovation” are often not used in a very consistent and sometimes even somewhat interchangeable form in the literature, we would like to introduce some basic definitions1. A technological innovation is the successful implementation of a technical idea, which is new to the institution creating it. The essence of technology-based innovation is the systematic and successful use of science to create new forms of economic activity. Technology-based innovation thus represents a subset of all innovation. The distinction between technology-based innovation and incremental product enhancement is based on the extent of novelty in the science or technology. A commercial innovation is the result of the application of technical, market, or business-model ingenuity to create a new or improved product, process, or service that is successfully introduced into the market. An invention is distinguished from an innovation by its character as pure knowledge. An invention becomes an innovation with the first commercial transaction. An innovation is thus a commercialised invention The direct products of a technological invention are not goods or services, but the recipes used to create them. This may result in patents, or more broadly in new firms or business units within existing firms. A patent refers more to an invention than an innovation. Inventions are the necessary seed for technological change, but it is innovation that generates