Commentary: Measuring Biotech by Patents Is Patently Absurd

Nature, a British journal, has completed a comprehensive analysis of patented human DNA sequences. About 1/2 of the patents awarded to the private sector have gone to Japanese companies. However, any implication that the US is lagging in biotech is wrong. In the early 1980s, Congress worried that Japan was gearing up to take over world biotech, the way it conquered electronics - by filing many patents of fairly narrow scope. But incremental manufacturing advances and other small steps are virtually irrelevant in biotech. There are many more factors to consider beside just adding up the number of patents drugmakers hold.