Startup biotechnology firms

Small startup biotechnology fmmay have little or no taxable income, but tax losses can be carried forward into future years. Still some firms may never become profitable, and the value of future tax benefits is less than those that can be used immediately. Therefore, the net cost of research to such small firms may be higher than for established pharmaceutical fins. 

At its outset, the new technology was the province of a host of small companies that typically focused on one or a few potential products. Scriabiane (1999) estimates that there were 1,308 such firms in the United States in 1996 (p. 271). Of these, only 260 were public corporations. Many startup firms had their roots in university science. Another survey reported that fully 1,100 new biotechnology companies were created between 1980 and 1994 from licenses granted by universities (p. 272). 

However, small startup firms have cornered the markets here, while established companies are strugghng to maintain their innovative edge, and the same applies to the chemical industry. Innovations in e-commerce and in biotechnology have started to change the game completely in some chemical businesses, such as agrochemicals, but most of these originate with startups, and not with the big estab-hshed chemical companies. 

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