OECD finds "systemic imperfections" in EU

A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on biopharmaceutical innovation sys-tems has identified many "systemic imperfections" that hamper the operation of national biopharmaceutical inno-vation systems. The problems are said to be related mainly to the exploitation and commercialization of knowledge and to such innovation framework conditions as the regu-latory framework and intellectual property rights.

As the main policy recommendation to boost biopharma-ceutical innovation, the OECD report called on govern-ments to close the "coordination gap" within the agencies that manage specific areas of the innovation chain and to implement R&D and health care policies for greater coherence and consistency of innovation policy in this sector. The report can be read on line at: www.oecd.org.

The report also compared the overall performance of eight selected countries in terms of science, as well as biopharmaceutical innovation and industrial development. The countries chosen by the OECD were Belgium, Fin-land, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain; all results were population-weighted.