The first report on biotechnology in developing countries revealing an overall picture of their biotechnology growth and competitiveness was released on November 15 on the 27^th TWAS General Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda. 

The report was organized by CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Biotechnology (CoEBio), a jointly supported center by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS).  

Release by Professor LI Yin, director of CoEBio, this report focused on scientific publications and patents in 32 categories of industrial, agricultural and medical biotechnologies covering 141 developing countries during the time from 2004 to 2014, as well as collaborations among those countries.  

“This report is the first extensive document summarizing the development status of a specific technology area in the developing world. It provides a strong, valuable assessment of biotechnology activities in developing countries, as measured in scientific publications and patents,” said BAI Chunli, President of CAS and TWAS, in the foreword of the report. 

The report reveals that among the 141 developing countries, 128 countries have references published in biotechnology and only 30 countries have patents granted. In the five regions of TWAS, TWAS East and South East Asia and Pacific Region and TWAS Sub Saharan Africa Region (TWAS-SSA) have the most references and patents; while, TWAS-SSA has the most active cooperation.  

According to the report, China, India, Brazil and Mexico have the most references and patents, while Saudi Arab, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Algeria have the fastest growth in references. China has the most references and patents among all. 

The report was a joint work of CoEBio and Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters). It has a compared study of development and characteristics among five regions in TWAS, with a detailed analysis of each country, which provides a macro-reference of the subject for TWAS and UNESCO in understanding the current status and future trend of biotechnology development in developing countries. 

CoEBio was formally established in 2013, based on the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is an integrative platform aiming to strengthen the biotechnology innovation capability of developing countries and to provide biotechnological solutions to the problems in developing countries through strategic intelligence analysis, scientific cooperation, technology training and education relating to biotechnology. 

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