Making Philippine Biotechnology Competitive
Authors: Tecson-Mendoza Evelyn Mae , Dalmacio Ida 
Published: January 2025

Biotechnology-based industries or bioindustries are one of the fastest-growing industry sectors worldwide, with annual growth of up to 20% and higher in some areas. Bioindustry includes companies involved in the R&D and manufacture of materials such as cell cultures, catalysts, genetic materials, immune response materials, biochemicals, enzymes, proteins, and equipment used in biological and genetic research on humans, plants, and animals. It also includes service organizations that perform consulting, testing, processing, and storage of such products. This paper aims to analyze the rise of bioindustry in selected European and developing countries, briefly review the status of biotechnology and bioindustry in the Philippines, and discuss possible strategies to spur the development of bioindustry in the country.
The United States leads in bioindustries, generating US$20 billion in revenues and 437,000 jobs in 1999. The UK and Germany hold the second and third spots. The following have been cited as contributors to the development of bioindustries in Europe: (a) strong life science research in universities and strong research partnerships and collaborations between and among universities and industry; (b) enabling policies by national and regional governments, such as laws that provide huge financial grants to projects, the establishment of bioparks or bioincubators, support for start-ups, and encouragement for academics to become entrepreneurs; (c) strategies such as clustering or networking, especially at the regional level; and (d) strong biotechnology industry organizations. Governments of Asian countries like Japan, China, India, Singapore, and Taiwan are cited for providing enormous financial support to the development of biotechnology R&D and bioindustries.
While biotechnology was institutionalized in the Philippines two decades ago, bioindustry is still largely undeveloped. Among the biotechnologies developed locally, plant tissue culture of orchids and bananas can be considered the most widely utilized at the commercial level. Others, such as biopesticides, biofertilizers, industrial enzymes, amino acid production, and vaccine production, have not taken off for several reasons: lack of industry-academe partnerships/interactions, lack of facilities and support capital for piloting technologies, and lack of IPR awareness and support.
To help spur the development of biotechnology in the country, the following recommendations are offered: (a) adoption of clustering management for R&D and commercialization at the regional and national levels; (b) establishment of an enabling environment that will provide financial support to selected projects up to commercialization, provide infrastructure and support facilities such as a biopark, offer incentives for start-ups and venture companies, and encourage scientists and business management experts to enter bioindustries and develop intellectual property (IP) culture and innovation among scientists; (c) careful selection of local and foreign mature technologies for commercialization and R&D projects with potential commercial outputs; and (d) creation of a national biotechnology oversight committee to coordinate and orchestrate the implementation of a unified biotechnology agenda.