The R&D top 1000

Biotech firm CSL has just made it into the world’s top 500 spenders on R&D.

The blood products, cervical cancer and flu vaccine maker spent $136.6 million on R&D in calendar 2006, ranking it 499 in the world, according to a study by consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.

Three other Australian companies made it into Booz’s top 1000: world's biggest miner, BHP Billion at 714; poker machine maker Aristocrat Leisure at 742; and oil producer Roc Oil at 957.

The 10 biggest R&D spenders in the world were Toyota, Pfizer, Ford, Johnson & Johnson, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Microsoft, GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens and IBM.

Toyota spent $8.7 billion (3.7% of its sales revenue), while Pfizer spent $8.6 billion (15.7% of its sales revenue).

Across the top 1000 companies, R&D spending in 2006 increased by 10% to $504.6 billion, accounting for 52% of the $992.27 billion total global spend, based on OECD, World Bank and IMF figures.

At 10%, the growth rate of R&D spending in the top 1000 companies outpaced annual revenue growth of 9%, reversing trends in previous studies in which R&D spending was slower, the survey said.

Those companies found to align innovation strategy with corporate strategy generated 40% higher operating growth and better shareholder returns.

Even so, Booz found that there was no statistically significant connection between the amount of money a company spent on innovation and its financial performance.

US companies increased their R&D spend by 13%, while China and India increased their spending by 25%. However, China and India continued to lag in intensity, with a spending level only 0.8% of sales.

Booz said this represented the level of maturity in those markets, and possibly lower costs.