Red Biotech
The prototypical application of biotechnology is in red, or therapeutic, applications. These charts show the location of the developer firm for approved biotechnology drugs over a 20-year span (bottom), as well as the global distribution of contributions to neglected diseases (below). It is worth noting that funding for neglected diseases can deliver far greater returns than might be expected; citizens who travel abroad may return with these neglected diseases, which may be infectious, and require treatment, and insights gleaned from research on neglected diseases can help develop treatments for more common conditions. Treating neglected diseases can also have impacts beyond human health—the control of yellow fever, for example, was a crucial enabler of construction of the Panama Canal.
SOURCES: OECD Biotechnology Statistics, 2009. Moran, M. et al. 2009. Neglected disease research & development: New times, new trends. The George Institute for International Health, Sydney, Australia.
