Biotechnology in one form or another has flourished since prehistoric times. When the first human beings realized that they could plant their own crops and breed their own animals, they learned to use biotechnology. The discovery that fruit juices fermented into wine or that milk could be converted into cheese or yogurt, or that beer could be made by fermenting solutions of malt and hops began the study of biotechnology. The first animal breeders, realizing that different physical traits could be either magnified or lost by mating appropriate pairs of animals, engaged in the manipulations of biotechnology.
What then, is biotechnology? The term brings to mind many different things. Some think of developing new types of animals. Others dream of almost unlimited sources of human therapeutic drugs. Still others envisage the possibility of growing crops that are more nutritious and naturally pest-resistant to feed a rapidly growing world population.
In its purest form, the term "biotechnology" refers to the use of living organisms or their products to modify human health and the human environment. Prehistoric biotechnologists did this as they used yeast cells to raise bread dough and to ferment alcoholic beverages, and bacterial cells to make cheeses and yogurts and as they bred their strong, productive animals to make even stronger and more productive offspring.
Today, biotechnology is used for producing existing products in new ways, identifying new product opportunities (as in drug discovery), and for producing new products that could not be commercially produced before (as with many large molecule therapeutics and some GM plant varieties). The wide range of uses for biotechnology means that it is a generic
technology with applications in many different economic sectors. Biotechnology is also better described as a group of related biotechnologies.
The diverse types of biotechnologies and the range of possible applications create two main challenges for developing comparable biotechnology statistics: how to define
biotechnology and how to define a biotechnology firm.
As the term 'biotechnology' is relatively new, it is difficult to define what exactly a 'biotechnology' is. As a combination of 'biology' and 'technology', such a definition
encompasses the vast range of life sciences and medical disciplines, and all related technologies. As the dust has yet to settle on this question, the Biotechnology and
Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, has put forward the following definitions:
"Biotechnology is a set of powerful tools that employ living organisms or parts of organisms to make or modify products, improve plants or animals, or develop microorganisms for specific uses. Examples of this new 'biotechnology' include industrial use of recombinant DNA, cell fusion, and novel bioprocessing."
It is generally understood in Taiwan as:
'The application of technological principles in life sciences”.
Using this latter definition, 'biotechnology' includes the pharmaceutical industry.
Furthermore, because of its ethnic Chinese heritage, Taiwan's pharmaceutical industry has always included the Chinese medicine industry. In fact, many manufacturers of Western pharmaceuticals in Taiwan are also producing Chinese medicinal ingredients and formulations. Similarly, many new biotech start-ups are conducting research on modern medical uses of traditional Chinese herbs and medicines.
6.1 The OECD’s definition of biotechnology
The OECD has developed both a single definition of biotechnology and a list-based
definition (see box below) of different types of biotechnology. The single definition defines biotechnology as “the application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or nonliving materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services.”
The OECD list-based definition, or close variants, were used in surveys in 15 countries, but different definitions of biotechnology were used in the other 11 countries: 7 studies limit biotechnology to ‘modern’ or third-generation biotechnologies that are similar to the OECD list-based definition in practice, 2 studies use mixed definitions that include second
generation biotechnologies (Japan and South Africa), and 2 do not define biotechnology, but
leave it to the survey respondent to decide if their firm is active in biotechnology. As the latter two studies cover Denmark and Sweden, a large majority of the respondents are likely to interpret biotechnology as modern biotechnology.
Box 2. OECD Categories of Biotechnology
Source: OECD Biotechnology Statistics 2006
6.2 Definition of a biotechnology firm
The definition of a biotechnology firm is partly linked to the method used in each country to sample firms. Three definitions are in common use. Two different methods are used in separate studies in Finland, Korea, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
Data are only available for ‘core’ biotechnology firms for seven countries. The definition of a core biotechnology firm varies, but in most countries a core biotechnology firm must
perform R&D in biotechnology and biotechnology must be its principal activity. The latter requirement often limits core biotechnology firms to those with less than 500 employees.
At least some of the data for the remaining 19 countries cover all firms with some
biotechnology activities, even if biotechnology is only a small part of its total activity. In 13 countries biotechnology firms are identified through a positive response to a question on conducting biotechnology-related R&D in the national R&D survey.
In nine countries all biotechnology firms were surveyed (core firms plus other firms with some biotechnology activities). No information on the definition of a biotechnology firm is available for Poland. In 20 countries at least one survey is limited to firms that develop biotechnology innovations. For four countries, the only available survey includes firms that use biotechnology but do not necessarily perform biotechnology R&D. No data are available for Belgium and China on this issue.