In the fifth consecutive year of evaluating and ranking countries on the growth of their biotech industries, Scientific American’s Worldview Scorecard reveals a few surprises. Outside the United States, for example, Romania leads the way in total venture capital investment relative to GDP. And in the overall country rankings, the United Arab Emirates, new to the list this year, placed 40th, right behind China and immediately ahead of Russia.

This year’s scorecard analyzed 54 countries on six categories that impact biotech innovation and growth of the industry, including intellectual property, intensity, enterprise support, policy and stability, education/workforce, and foundations. Newcomers added this year included the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Puerto Rico, reflecting the growth of biotech around the world.

The United States lead the overall list, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Third-place finisher, Switzerland, is new to the top five.

Ireland lost its top ten placing of 2012 as the United Kingdom moved up to 9 from last year’s rank at 11.

While China outspends other countries in R&D by a wide margin, with the exception of the United States, the scorecard shows that Chinese R&D spend per R&D full-time equivalent staff is in the bottom quartile. In simple terms, China spends less support dollars per employee, even on a scale adjusted for differences in cost-of-living between countries, wage differentials, and part-time workers. Top countries in spending per employee are Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The United States was not ranked in this category.

The issues of patents and protection of intellectual property in the global marketplace were raised repeatedly in a panel discussion of the scorecard, moderated by Fareed Zakaria, reporter and host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Zakaria said that only the United States has strong patent protection. Panelist Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the U.S. trade group Biotechnology Industry Organization, suggested that the concept of global patents might provide an interesting solution to the challenges innovators face.

Panelist Sam Pitroda, chairman, National Innovation Council, Government of India, defended his country’s often controversial approaches to intellectual property issues, saying that India needs to focus on what India needs, not what other countries want India to need. He also discussed electronic health records and telemedicine as top priorities for India.

The Worldview Scorecard panel discussion closed with comments on the evolving global nature of biotech and the industry’s future in addressing problems of health, food, and energy.