OBJECTIVES: Global economies are still in recovery from the financial crisis, and both mature and emerging markets will need to continuously innovate and launch new products and services to succeed in the future. Developed markets have traditionally been the source of most biopharmaceutical innovations as well as the destination for the resulting health and economic benefits and there is a gap in research on emerging markets in this sector.[1] We sought to assess the level of innovation in the BRICs markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China) compared to the top five mature economies by GDP (United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom). METHODS: We indexed the nine countries across seven innovation indicators (high technology exports (in USD, and as a percentage of manufactured exports), patent applications, revenue received for use of intellectual property, R&D expenditure, R&D workforce, and scientific/technical journal articles), based on 10-year trends from 2003 to 2012. These indices were then used to calculate an innovation score for each country. RESULTS: Among the target established markets, France and Germany were tied for highest overall growth in innovation, followed by the US, then UK, and Japan. China was the clear innovation leader among emerging markets followed by India, then Brazil, and Russia. Overall, with the exception of Russia, emerging markets scored better than the established markets. China ranked first overall, India second and Brazil third while Russia was eighth only beating out Japan which took ninth place overall. CONCLUSIONS: While established markets have traditionally been thought to drive technological advances, emerging BRICs markets have thriving innovation landscapes and in future may play a significant role in the biopharmaceutical innovation landscape.