South Africa's strategy for developing its biotechnology industry by establishing biotechnology regional innovation centres (BRICs)

Abstract

South Africa has failed to develop a viable Biotechnology industry despite strong life sciences facilities and academic training. Government has pursued various strategies for developing this industry since 1982 however none have succeeded. The most recent strategy entails the establishment of four Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centres (BRICs).Competitiveness at a nation level is arguably best described using Porter’s Diamond of National Competitiveness model which provides a framework for analysing an industry cluster. The South African National Biotechnology Strategy has been designed to stimulate cluster formation with the BRIC at the core. In order to assess the success of the BRIC strategy it is necessary to establish a baseline analysis of the biotechnology sector. To do this an analysis was performed by means of a quantitative email survey which assessed the South African biotechnology sector in terms of the four attributes of the Diamond model.The analysis presented here found that the South African biotechnology industry is deficient in all four attributes of the Diamond model. Positives do exist and can be leveraged to attempt to address the deficiencies. The most notable deficiencies identified were a skills shortage, poor access to funding and a poor understanding of the fundamentals of biotechnology. The establishment of a dedicated Biotechnology Park was found to be of interest to stakeholders.