Building for the Bottom-5

Among the five countries at the bottom of this year’s overall innovation index, three—Argentina, Indonesia and Ukraine—are new to our list. The remaining two countries—India and the Philippines—also landed low on last year’s overall ranking.

India’s overall score placed it near the bottom because of its scores for Intensity, Education/Workforce and Foundations, even though its ratings for Intensity and Enterprise Support did increase a bit, from 0.25 and 3.35, respectively, in 2010 to 0.35 to 3.41 in 2011. Also, India’s score for Education/Workforce climbed from 0 in 2010 to 0.54 in 2011. On the other hand, its Foundations score dropped from 1.71 in 2010 to 0.89 in 2011, a decrease verging on 50 percent.

The Philippines did about the same in terms of ups and downs. On the up side, it improved its scores for Enterprise Support and Education/Workforce from 0.96 and 0.57, respectively, in 2010 to 1.44 and 1.06 in 2011. Although the raw numbers look bleak in both years, they show a 50 percent increase in Enterprise Support and about an 85 percent increase in Education/Workforce. Nonetheless, the Philippines dropped from a Foundations score of 1.73 in 2010 to 0.75 in 2011. In both years, due to a lack of available data, the Philippines received a zero for Intensity.

For the other three countries in the bottom five for overall biotechnology innovation, the data breakdowns on the categories that make up the overall innovation score might direct leaders to areas in need of improvement. Argentina, for example, earned an IP score that surpassed its performance in all of the other categories. A lack of data for the country gave it a score of zero on Intensity, and it finished near the bottom of the list for Enterprise Support, Education/Workforce and Foundations. In fact, Argentina surpassed only one country, the Ukraine, on Enterprise Support.

Indonesia’s scores for IP, Intensity, and Foundations all show much room for improvement. Its 0.49 and 0.84 scores for IP and Foundations, respectively, were both second from last in those categories, while its Intensity score of 0.23 kept it just a few places from the bottom in that category. The country’s rating of 3.90 in Enterprise Support moves it toward the middle of the pack, and its Education/Workforce score of 3.17 earns it a solid number 15 spot.

Ukraine’s scores indicated much room for improvement. Take its IP rating of 4.59, which stands out as a raw number from its other scores, but that only placed it at seventh from last on the list. A lack of data blocked the country from receiving an Intensity score, and for Enterprise Support, it landed at the bottom. Although the Ukraine does outdo a handful of countries in both Education/Workforce and Foundations, both of these categories look ripe for improvement.

For any country working its way up the international biotechnology ladder, some focused attention to certain areas can make all the difference. The data presented here help to reveal the spots in need of the most work.