R&D spending

By Economist.com

TOYOTA spent more on research and development (R&D) than any other company in the world in 2011, according to "Global Innovation 1,000". This report compiled by Booz & Company, a consultancy, looks at the companies with the 1,000 biggest R&D budgets. Toyota increased its 2010 spending by 16.5%, and the car industry as a whole increased spending by $13.2 billion, largely to meet fuel economy standards and improve electronics. Two health-care companies, Roche and Pfizer, had topped the 2010 table, but dropped to third and fourth places after reducing spending in 2011. Yet the health-care industry still supplied three of the five biggest budgets, and accounted for 21% of the $603 billion spent on R&D by the 1,000 companies. It is not the most lavish-spending industry, though: that title goes to computing and electronics, whose firms spent 28% of the total R&D expenditure and also increased spending more than any other sector (by $13.4 billion). Overall R&D spending in 2011 grew for the second year running.