The contrasting roles of government in the development of biotechnology industry in the US and Germany

During the last 30 years, biotechnology development has charred different paths in the US and in Germany. Even though in Germany federal support programs started very early to target biotechnology, the innovative performance of this sector has been lagging behind that of the US, where the federal support was less direct. This article compares the two national science and technology (S&T) policies and analyzes the political, economic and social factors that determined the different paths. The paper concludes that an indirect S&T policy that tries to spread the factors, thereby enabling a preferable "economic ecology" for biotech development, is more successful than an interventionist policy. Political action, however, is limited and can only enhance science and technology development if the policies mesh with the social and economic dispositions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.