Regional differences in the development of the biotechnology industry in Latin America, with particular emphasis on Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

The biotechnology industry, now considered a key component of the so-called Third Technological Revolution, is experiencing dynamic growth throughout the world, including many parts of Latin America. This sector has been growing particularly fast since the 1990s in the largest countries of the region – Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. In the beginning of the 1990s those three countries liberalized their economic policies and policies on foreign trade. They also took active part in the process of globalization by opening up to foreign investment and by ratifying agreements on international exchange of commodities and intellectual property. This clearly accelerated the development of their biotechnology sector. The purpose of this paper is to describe regional differences in the growth of the biotechnology industry in Latin America. The regional distribution of biotechnology companies is also compared. The geographic distribution of biotechnology companies was used in an attempt to identify key regions associated with the biotechnology sector in Latin America, and to determine the factors that impact or are associated with the regional distribution of the biotechnology sector. The research was based on contact data obtained from a Swiss company called Biotechgate, as well as on various Mexican and Brazilian sources.