Incubators and Biotech Start-Ups in Brazil

Incubators and Biotech Start-Ups in Brazil

To be hatched in an incubator is quite common and important in Brazil.  The technology-based incubators are of fundamental importance in the national and international strategy.  In the recent mapping of the biotech industry in Brazil, coordinated by the Brazilian Association of Biotechnology – Biotech-BR with the support from APEX Brazil, we found that more than 50% of Brazilian-formed biotech enterprises were linked to an incubator. But what does it mean to be created in an incubator? The incubator provides a good cost-benefit equation, and the entrepreneur feels supported by the physical structure, but more importantly, there is a sense  … Read more

Brazilian Biotech Map

Brazilian Biotech Map

The Br-Biotec, with the support of APEX-Brazil and the collaboration of BIORIO and CEBRAP, performed a significant evaluation of the biotechnology enterprises in Brazil. Partly the idea was to focus on identifying companies in Brazil that have biotech as their main activity or are developing major biotech projects. We tried to answer questions such as: How many biotech companies exist in Brazil? Where are they? In what field are they working? What are their revenues and how many employees do they have? Regarding their businesses: Do they export, import, have patents, and/or collaborate with research institutions? We included in the  … Read more

Can Brazil become a biotech superpower?

Can Brazil become a biotech superpower?

As a scientist, professor and entrepreneur, I’ve been following and participating in the Brazilian biotech history for the last 12 years. Like many researchers in Brazil, I studied abroad – supported by the Brazilian Research Council – and understood earlier than some the difficulties in returning to Brazil. So I continued to perform as a researcher. But we do return! My path, initially more naïve than realistic, was to create one of the first biotech companies in Brazil (1999). In the past 12 years, I’ve observed the fantastic number of Ph.Ds graduating every year in Brazil. The amount of research  … Read more