Which Country Is No. 1 in Biotechnology?
Ask almost any life sciences researcher, venture capitalist, or policy analyst which country leads in biotechnology, and you will get the same answer: the United States. It is not a particularly close contest. By most measures that actually matter — the volume and quality of research output, private capital deployment, the number of commercially successful companies, FDA-approved biologics, and Nobel laureates in the life sciences — the U.S. has held a commanding position for the better part of five decades.
That said, "dominance" is not the same as "inevitability." The global biotech landscape has shifted noticeably in the past fifteen years, and anyone who dismisses China's rise or underestimates the quiet productivity of Switzerland and the UK is probably not paying close enough attention.
