(© Aaron McKinney)
Fostering a Worldwide “Innovation Climate”
In science, transformative ideas are rarely hatched in a vacuum. Despite the romantic notion of the lone researcher toiling toward a moment of solitary genius, the optimum conditions for ingenuity and the delivery of its attendant societal benefits are best created in a hospitable climate for innovation.
An innovation climate is very much like that of any other climate, be it political, economic, social or even meteorological. When the various conditions and influences are favorably aligned, this can set the stage for truly transformative events and ideas. This is particularly true in the life sciences, where ideas have the potential to bring about dramatic improvements in healthcare, energy, global food demand and industrial processes—but only if circumstances allow these ideas to be properly nurtured and developed.
Creating the necessary conditions for successful biotechnology development is uniquely challenging. Patent a widget, and you can sell it tomorrow. Patent a biological molecule and the timeframe for clinical trials and regulatory approval can span 12 or more years. Though such scientific advancements carry enormous potential, the sheer cost in time, effort and financial resources necessary for the idea-to-product process is staggering. This is where policy takes center stage. For governments across the world, fostering an environment that offers sound educational opportunities, rewards ingenuity, encourages investment, protects intellectual property and ensures the safety and benefits of new products is a Herculean task—a task infinitely compounded by the current global economic crisis, where credit and cash are scarce and promising innovative ideas face an uncertain future.
To elucidate the subject of international life science support and its many challenges, we proudly offer this special annual report, Scientific American Worldview: A Global Biotechnology Perspective, covering the most-relevant advancements in biotechnology in the context of international progress.
Our annual Worldview Scorecard headlines this report with a country-by-country assessment of the best national innovation climates in the world today. We hope this ranking will inspire dialogue, comments, feedback and reflection among a broad audience of world leaders in science, policy, government and business. We also hope that both emerging and mature markets will gain valuable insight from the issues and stories we cover. In addition to quantitative analyses of various nations, we also provide unique country spotlights that illustrate significant biotechnical developments poised to make an impact.
This exciting project from Scientific American—led by an independent team of editors and experts—is intended to offer an objective and comprehensive roadmap to understanding genuine innovation, a term that must remain meaningful and be ever-scrutinized, lest it become a cliché devoid of substance. As a global publisher, our role is to clarify, not complicate issues. Through our Worldview report, we hope to go beyond innovation as a buzzword or marketing concept, and explore its true scientific, societal, economic and political dimensions.
We are enormously grateful for the support of the forward-thinking companies and organizations that have made this project possible: Amgen, our Marquee Sponsor; the Biotechnology Industry Organization; Merck; and Pfizer.
We welcome your comments and feedback as we span the globe in search of the best biotechnology has to offer, and as we address today’s economic challenges by demanding a renewed commitment to innovative thinking and strategies worldwide.
Steven Yee is the president of Scientific American, Inc.
