Abstract

To gain insights into the potentials and characteristics of health biotechnology in developing countries, we carried out an analysis of health biotechnology publications in developing nations that have had some successes in this field. We analysed the patterns of health biotechnology publications of authors from seven developing countries from 1991 to 2002. Our results showed a significant growth in health biotechnology publications in developing countries. Their growth in the field was larger than the growth in industrialised countries, but the visibility of their research was limited. Universities were found to be the strongest producers of health biotechnology papers in the countries we studied. This study showed further that international research collaboration of these countries was extensive and domestic knowledge flows between their institutions seems to be increasing. Contrary to other work on health research in developing countries, this study suggested that developing countries’ research was focused on local health needs.

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