Demonstrating the practical value of public research has been an important subject in science policy. Here we present a detailed study on the evolution of the citation linkage between life science related patents and biomedical research over a 37-year period. Our analysis relies on a newly-created dataset that systematically links millions of non-patent references to biomedical papers. We find a large disparity in the volume of citations to science among technology sectors, with biotechnology and drug patents dominating it. The linkage has been growing exponentially over a long period of time, doubling every 2.9 years. The U.S. has been the largest producer of cited science for years, receiving nearly half of the citations. More than half of citations goes to universities. We use a new paper-level indicator to quantify to what extent a paper is basic research or clinical medicine. We find that the cited papers are likely to be basic research, yet a significant portion of papers cited in patents that are related to FDA-approved drugs are clinical research. The U.S. National Institute of Health continues to be an important funder of cited science. For the majority of companies, more than half of citations in their patents are authored by public research. Taken together, these results indicate a continuous linkage of public science to private sector inventions.

证明公共研究的实用价值已成为科学政策中的重要课题。在这里，我们将对生命科学相关专利与生物医学研究之间长达37年的引文链接演变进行详细研究。我们的分析依赖于一个新创建的数据集，该数据集系统地将数百万非专利参考文献链接到生物医学论文。我们发现技术领域对科学的引用量存在很大差异，其中生物技术和药物专利占主导地位。长期以来，这种联系呈指数增长，每2.9年翻一番。多年来，美国一直是引用科学的最大生产国，获得了近一半的引用。超过一半的引用被大学。我们使用新的论文水平指标来量化论文在什么程度上是基础研究或临床医学。我们发现引用的论文可能是基础研究，但是与FDA批准的药物相关的专利中引用的论文中有很大一部分是临床研究。美国国立卫生研究院仍然是引用科学的重要资助者。对于大多数公司而言，其专利中超过一半的引用是通过公共研究获得的。综上所述，这些结果表明公共科学与私营部门发明之间的持续联系。美国国立卫生研究院仍然是引用科学的重要资助者。对于大多数公司而言，其专利中超过一半的引用是通过公共研究获得的。综上所述，这些结果表明公共科学与私营部门发明之间的持续联系。美国国立卫生研究院仍然是引用科学的重要资助者。对于大多数公司而言，其专利中超过一半的引用是通过公共研究获得的。综上所述，这些结果表明公共科学与私营部门发明之间的持续联系。