Guidelines
In 2004, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris introduced a comprehensive Biotechnology Statistics Framework, which was intended to collect comparative data at a national level about the state of development in the young sector. But still today, there are no Europe-wide, standardised statistics backed up by a database that identifies and includes companies, and can provide this information to anyone. And until the public sector is able to shake off its lethargy, private initiatives have to take up the slack.
The European Biotechnology Foundation is therefore honoured to support an appropriate initiative. After a break that has lasted for some years, the second edition of the "European Biotechnology Industry Guide" recently rolled off the presses (European Biotechnology Industry Guide 2009, 2nd Edition, ISBN 978-3-928383-28-8, BIOCOM publishers, Berlin 2009, 434 pages, 98,- EUR, availabe at www.eurobiotechnews.eu). The publication - containing information based on OECD criteria for more than 2,000 biotech companies active in the EU, Switzerland and Norway - was last updated in the spring of 2009. In order to provide online access to this information, we are pleased to make a searchable database available at our network's website.