The role of small firms in US biotechnology clusters

The biotechnology industry poses a particular challenge to analysis because its origins were poorly understood or even noticed at the time. The purpos e of this paper is to examine and make sense of recent developments in the U.S. biotechnology industry. The pioneers and subsequent followers in biote chnology came from other fields. They altered their career trajectories in sciences like genetics and medical research to enter an unknown and undefin ed field, which only subsequently became labeled as biotechnology. Those re gions exhibiting the greatest success in developing biotechnology clusters also possessed the greatest ability to unleash the potential commercializat ion latent in those scientists. To generate a successful regional cluster, the existence of world class scientific talent is a necessary condition. Ho wever, it is not a sufficient condition. The ancillary or complementary fac tors must also be available to translate this knowledge into a commercializ ed product. The complementary factors include the presence of venture capit al and other forms of finance, the existence of an entrepreneurial culture, and transparent and minimal regulations fostering the start-up and growth processes.