Embargoed until 10:45am – 4 April 2008
Biotechnology fermenting across all regions
Twenty-one percent of biotechnology organisations are active in the Auckland region, but biotechnology activity is
spread evenly across the remainder of the country, Statistics New Zealand said today. These figures are from the
Biotechnology Survey 2007, which measures the use of biotechnologies and their uptake by organisations, and includes
regional figures for the first time in the biennial survey's history.
Of the biotechnology techniques used by New Zealand organisations in 2007, 67 percent were at the research and
development (R) stage. The predominant technique used in the R stage was DNA sequencing/synthesis/amplification.
The most common constraint to biotechnology R was lack of access to capital, reported by 50 percent of organisations active in biotechnology.
In the two years to June 2007, 225 biotechnology-related patents were granted to New Zealand organisations. Of these
patents, the private sector was responsible for the most patents (108), followed by the public sector (75), and the
higher education sector (48).
Statistics New Zealand will not be releasing information gathered in the 2007 survey for the areas relating to income,
expenditure, exports and employment at this time. We will be reviewing the biotechnology survey data quality and
methodology to determine the best approach for future releases.
Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
4 April 2008
ENDS