Facteurs de survie et de croissance des entreprises de biotechnologies au Canada

This study aims to determine the factors that influence the survival of biotechnology firms in Canada and of firm characteristics on the growth of all biotech firms in Canada. Certain attributes, such as collaboration, research and development, intellectual property, product management and financing are examined. The fact that collaboration is essential to knowledge transfer and that this transfer is crucial raises important questions about innovation strategies. How are intellectual property, research and development intensity and a certain maturity of the innovative structure beneficial to firm survival? Similar considerations apply to financial and government support. Within a domain characterised by knowledge transfer and intellectual property protection, how do firms protect their assets when trying to raise funds particularly within alliances? The study is based on the responses to the four Biotechnology Uses and Development Surveys (BUDS) of Statistics Canada that were linked to one another to build a quasi-longitudinal database. Our research finds that firms that collaborate for exploration purposes have better chances of survival than others and grow faster. The acquisition of knowledge through collaboration seems to be essential to innovation in the biotech industry. Results also suggest that a larger number of patents decrease the probability of survival. The analysis of growth factors shows non-linear effects that also suggest that high intensive patenting firms are disadvantaged. As patents are an essential appropriation tool in the biotech industry, this result suggests that the patent race represents a burden for enterprises because it requires a lot of financial and human resources. Investigation of the product development process shows that clinical research also requires a lot of resources, which results in the fact that firms enter the production and commercialization stage in a weak position, which may then cause firms to exit. In addition, some firms with products on the market seem to stop their R&D efforts and do not renew their products, which further exacerbates exit. However, more firms have products in production or in the market and more firms have a chance to grow.