MIXED NEWS

(Via The Big Picture)

US ahead as global R&D spending up 10%

By John Willman in London

Published: November 11 2007 18:21 Last updated: November 11 2007 18:21

Britain’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said the 1,250 top companies around the world invested £243.9bn ($510bn, €348bn) in R&D in 2006. This was an increase of 10 per cent over 2005, when spending had risen 7 per cent.

The scoreboard, the world’s most comprehensive R&D ranking, showed the US continuing to pull away from Europe and the rest of the world. Its largest companies boosted their R&D investment by 13.4 per cent to £98.6bn, 40 per cent of the global total.

Europe’s investment in R&D rose 8 per cent to £86.6bn, with Germany, France and the UK accounting for almost two-thirds of that total. Growth in Germany and France was below the European average, while the UK’s investment rose 11.9 per cent.

Japan continued to be among the laggards, with 5.7 per cent growth, which still left it number two in the global league table. Its largest companies spent £42.3bn on R&D in 2006.

R&D spending in the top companies was highest in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector, whose 15.7 per cent increase to £47.4bn meant it accounted for almost a fifth of the global total. Pfizer of the US was the biggest spender, investing £3.9bn in 2006, followed by Johnson & Johnson at £3.6bn.

I write that this is mixed news because so many of the big U.S. spenders aren't known for their world-class contributions to science. Here's the top 50. To the immediate left of the money spent (in British pounds) is the company's world ranking.

	Company	Country	Rank	£m
1	Pfizer	USA	1	3,882.59
2	Ford Motor	USA	2	3,678.73
3	Johnson & Johnson	USA	3	3,640.41
4	Microsoft	USA	4	3,638.36
5	General Motors	USA	9	3,372.16
6	Intel	USA	11	3,000.72
7	IBM	USA	13	2,899.55
8	Merck	USA	18	2,443.75
9	Motorola	USA	24	2,097.90
10	Cisco Systems	USA	25	2,077.97
11	Hewlett-Packard	USA	30	1,834.76
12	Amgen	USA	32	1,719.80
13	Boeing	USA	33	1,664.11
14	Eli Lilly	USA	36	1,598.87
15	Wyeth	USA	38	1,588.52
16	Bristol-Myers Squibb	USA	39	1,567.04
17	General Electric	USA	40	1,516.96
18	Sun Microsystems	USA	43	1,327.41
19	Abbott Laboratories	USA	49	1,152.30
20	Oracle	USA	50	1,121.50
21	Texas Instruments	USA	50	1,121.50
22	Schering-Plough	USA	53	1,117.92
23	Delphi	USA	55	1,072.96
24	Procter & Gamble	USA	57	1,060.19
25	Qualcomm	USA	68	785.82
26	United Technologies	USA	69	781.22
27	EMC	USA	71	750.97
28	Honeywell	USA	74	720.93
29	Caterpillar	USA	75	688.23
30	EI du Pont de Nemours	USA	77	665.24
31	Medtronic	USA	79	633.05
32	Google	USA	80	627.73
33	Advanced Micro Devices	USA	81	615.68
34	Freescale Semiconductor	USA	82	610.57
35	Dow Chemical	USA	86	594.73
36	Applied Materials	USA	87	588.76
37	Lockheed Martin	USA	88	581.95
38	Broadcom	USA	91	570.72
39	Allergan	USA	93	539.29
40	Electronic Arts	USA	94	531.88
41	Boston Scientific	USA	97	515.02
42	Altria	USA	98	513.49
43	Forest Laboratories	USA	100	480.79
44	Symantec	USA	105	442.92
45	Yahoo†	USA	106	435.39
46	3M	USA	107	433.27
47	CA	USA	114	407.21
48	Amazon.com	USA	116	401.08
49	Xerox	USA	124	388.82
50	Exxon Mobil	USA	130	374.52