Top of the Class, but Not Straight "A"s

Scientific American, as part of its second Worldview Scorecard, recently reviewed the top five nations for biotech with respect to their intellectual property, "intensity," enterprise support, education and workforce, and foundations. The US snagged the top spot, followed by Singapore, Sweden, and Canada. Over at Fierce Biotech, John Carroll says that the US made "good scores across the full range of issues and a top score in the IP/venture field." At The Big Red Biotech Blog, Bruce Lehr notes that the Scientific American piece "goes on to caution that the US is slipping in its quality of biotech workforce ([second] to Singapore), and the education system that needs to support future workers is in need of improvement now — especially in hub areas like California." Gail Maderis at Xconomy examines "how Bay Area biotech stacks up with the rest of the world" and says that while the US was ranked number one, "locally, our perception of success is more skewed because of our intimate relationship with innovation."