Asset accumulation,interdependence and technological change: evidence from pharmaceutical drug discovery

Although the resource‐based view of the firm has been written about extensively, the process by which firm assets are accumulated has not been explored in detail. That is, we know little about the micro‐level mechanisms by which assets are built, nor do we have sufficient empirical evidence why some assets are more difficult to imitate, trade, or substitute. In this exploratory paper, we attempt to provide a better understanding of asset accumulation via an empirical research program in pharmaceutical drug discovery. Using a combination of field research, discovery data from nine pharmaceutical firms, and data on 218 alliances involving new technologies for experimentation and testing, three causes affecting asset accumulation are identified and described. First, the difficulty of imitating a particular asset is affected by interdependencies with other assets. Second, trading of assets can be impeded by structural inertia in the core of a firm that is adopting the technology asset. And third, fully specifying all factors affecting imitation and trading ex ante is very difficult, if not nearly impossible, under conditions of rapid technological change. We propose that the complex interactions of these causes can give rise to imperfections in factor markets. Finally, implications for further research are discussed as well. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why crash pharmaceutical research?

In a competitive environment it is important to bring research projects to an early successful conclusion. A stochastic model of a typical pharmaceutical research project shows that it is often very desirable to allocate more scientists to a project than the number which is most efficient in terms of progress per scientist-year.     

Factors influencing the profitability of pharmaceutical research

The output from a pharmaceutical research project is a stream of candidate drugs which may be submitted to clinical trials. The value of this output depends on the characteristics of the stochastic process generating this stream, and on the extent to which the candidate drugs are chemically similar to each other. This paper explores the impact of these factors on profitability, and on the policy which should be followed for selecting candidate drugs.     

A goal-oriented pharmaceutical research and development organization: an eleven-year experience

Pharmaceutical R & D effort is multidisciplinary and matrix in management form, but variable in organizational detail. Upjohn's discipline-oriented organization (coordination matrix) of 11 years ago is compared to its current organization consisting of a goal-oriented, leadership matrix and a simultaneously existing coordination matrix. Product development success and individual performances were similar for the concurrent coordination matrix and leadership matrix. Consensus on candidate product identification and execution of development plans is easier with a leadership matrix than with a coordination matrix, but flexible response to new or changing goals seems more likely with a coordination matrix. The location of candidate product advocacy differed in the two types of organization. Strategies effected over the 11-year period to overcome inherent limitations of goal-oriented organizations and functional organizations included the maintenance of competing yet synergistic, functional, and goal-oriented organizations, a strong publication and basic research policy, and a Troika' approach to candidate selection and development in the functional organization.     

A planning model of pharmaceutical research and development

Despite the popular view that pharmaceutical research is a random process, and by inference unplannable, the long-term survival and development of a pharmaceutical company must be based on a steady flow of new products with a full understanding by management of the relationships between research expenditure and the likely revenues they will produce. In this paper is developed a model of the R&D function which uses probabilistic assumptions to compute the expected stream of revenues from a portfolio of projects involving the major development routes from which pharmaceutical products usually arise. The model is based on expected values of market and technical research performance and hence gives expected or indicated sales in the future as output.     

A research and development decision model for pharmaceutical industry: case of China

This paper evaluates prospective technology areas, development strategies, and various innovation resources in China's pharmaceutical sector through the use of a hierarchical decision model. The results indicate that although domestic SMEs are the major preferred innovation alternative, it is followed closely by foreign MNCs. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the effectiveness of policy decisions are influenced by certain high technology areas. Recombinant therapeutic proteins, recombinant vaccines, and monoclonal antibody technologies are identified as the major areas that will influence the priority of innovation resources. The research crafts a research framework to formulate innovation strategies in dealing with the uncertainties of technology development and policy decisions in the biopharmaceutical industry.     

Implementing Lean Sigma in pharmaceutical research and development: a review by practitioners

The authors recount their experience of the implementation of lean thinking and Six Sigma in pharmaceutical development research and development (R&D). Use of Lean Sigma in pharmaceutical manufacturing is widespread and generally noncontentious. Lean Sigma is used successfully to improve the development of new pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. However, the value of the application of lean and Six Sigma ideas to research & development is controversial. Published material is reviewed, and then the methods, tools, barriers and benefits are discussed, with recommendations for implementation of Lean Sigma into an R&D organisation.     

化学发光新体系在药物分析中的应用研究进展

化学发光分析是根据化学发光反应产生的光辐射确定物质含量的一种痕量分析方法。针对化学发光分析灵敏度高、线性范围宽、分析速度快等优点,介绍了近年来化学发光新体系(无机氧化剂)在药物分析中的应用研究进展。     

Evaluating growth options as sources of value for pharmaceutical research projects

The financial value of research projects is difficult to assess because they are highly uncertain. Often, the result is either an overly conservative approach to strategic innovation, based on net present value analyses, or an overly aggressive approach based on optimistic qualitative portfolios. R&D project evaluation requires recognizing threats as well as opportunities from uncertain events, and incorporating flexibility in managerial action in response to them. Real options pricing analysis is a widely discussed tool for evaluating such managerial flexibility. The limitation of options pricing lies in its requirement for complete financial markets, in which a replicating asset can be found that reproduces (or, at least, is correlated with) the project’s payoffs in all possible states of the world. However, the major risks of research projects are typically project specific and cannot be replicated in external markets. In this situation, a decision tree is a better tool to represent managerial options during execution of the project, and to evaluate its value. A decision tree is equivalent to options pricing for risks that can be priced in the financial markets (if trading of securities is explicitly included), and moreover, it can incorporate risks and flexibility that are not traded in financial markets. Using decision trees, we demonstrate a quantitative evaluation of compound growth options from research at BestPharma, a large international pharmaceutical company. A growth option is a future opportunity that may arise from a current R&D investment. The growth option may not be related to the primary purpose of the R&D project, or not even be directly foreseeable. Kester (1984) has argued that growth options may account for a large part of project value. BestPharma faced the problem of choosing among several strategic research initiatives. They developed a decision tree representation of the projects, which helped to provide transparency about project value and strategic options. Most importantly, carefully thinking through the tree helped to identify growth options, represented by additional branches in the tree, and to quantify that they represented major sources of value.     

Factors affecting the management of interdisciplinary research in the pharmaceutical industry

The author uses the results of recent published behavioural research on team effectiveness as a framework to analyse the problems of managing R&D in pharmaceutical development. The research points to a large number of factors as having a potential impact on managing such R&D which is inescapably multi- or inter-disciplinary in nature. Some such factors may originate outside the team, some within. External factors include organizational climate, R&D decision-making environment, system maturity and organizational form (type of matrix); internal factors include span of responsibility of team members, disciplinary differentiation, task uncertainty, extent of fulfilment of Belbin roles and a significant requirement for flexibility of style on the part of the manager.
The author's conclusion is that achieving effective management of R&D teams in the pharmaceutical R&D environment requires attention to all these factors. The extent to which integration of different disciplines is achieved is symptomatic of the degree to which these factors are understood and attended to.     

制药企业的科研机构管理特点与新思路

目的浅析制药企业科研机构的管理在整个研发工作中的重要性,并提出切实可行的改进办法。方法本文通过分析制药企业科研机构管理的功能及特点,从满足科研人员差异化需求的角度入手,并结合作者自身工作实践,提出制药企业科研机构管理的新思路。结果与结论制药企业科研机构的管理工作应同科研工作一样不断进步、不断创新。     

面向企业的我国医药电子政务业务模式研究

我国医药电子政务经过20年的发展，取得了很大的进步与成长。但是由于我国医药电子政务起步较晚、医药企业的市场集中度低、信息化程度低、企业在线办事意识差等原因，面向企业的我国医药电子政务整体应用水平不高。随着政府职能的转变和构建社会主义和谐社会，面向企业的医药电子政务的开展进入以公共服务为主的新阶段。本论文把面向企业的我国医药电子政务模式进行了系统规划与设计，针对其实现提出了相应的措施与建议。     

中国仿制药品注册管理法规导向研究

通过对比研究美国和印度的仿制药品注册的相关法规与成功经验,指出中国仿制药注册制度的不足,为中国仿制药品注册管理法规的进一步完善提供参考。     

CEO research orientation,organizational context,and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

This study develops and tests a comprehensive framework that explains what, when, and how CEO characteristics influence firms’ innovation outcomes in R&D-intensive industries. Empirical evidence from 109 CEOs from 87 U.S.-based pharmaceutical firms over the period 2001–2013 reveals that research-oriented CEOs – those with ability and motivation for science and technology – increase their firms’ innovation outcomes. The results indicate that the CEO–innovation relationship strongly depends on the extent of CEOs’ managerial discretion, which is shaped by the organizational context. We contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of CEOs in firms´ innovation performance differentials.     

Does international research and development increase patent output? An analysis of Japanese pharmaceutical firms

Internationalizing research and development is often advocated as a strategy for fostering the development of technological capabilities. Although firms conduct international R&D to tap into knowledge bases that reside in foreign countries, we argue that in order to benefit from international R&D investments firms must already possess research capabilities in underlying or complementary technologies. We examine the international R&D expansion activities, research capabilities, and patent output of 65 Japanese pharmaceutical firms from 1980 to 1991. We find that firms benefit from international R&D only when they possess existing research capabilities in the underlying technologies. In addition to refining our understanding of when international R&D enhances firm innovation, our results integrate asset‐seeking and asset‐based theories of foreign direct investment. Internationalizing R&D to tap into foreign knowledge bases is consistent with asset‐seeking theories of foreign direct investment, while the contingent nature by which firms benefit from international R&D is consistent with asset‐based theories of foreign direct investment and the notion of absorptive capacity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

药物经济学在新药研发领域中的介入及应用现状探讨

随着新药研发过程的日益复杂,如何合理配置医药资源、降低研发费用、避免新药研发的风险成为世界政府和医药企业共同面对的难题。药物经济学作为一门新兴学科,其目的就是用最小的成本来获得最大的效益,在药品定价、新药研发中发挥着重要作用。本文主要研究药物经济学在新药研发中的作用,以分析与药物经济学的关系入手,进而阐述国内外医药企业在新药研发中药物经济学的应用现状,最后提出措施来推动我国医药企业在新药研发中对药物经济学的应用。     

纳布科管道:从构想走向现实

随着两次俄乌"天然气危机"让欧洲人饱尝天寒地冻之苦以及金融危机使俄罗斯实力受损,欧盟开始加快纳布科(Nabucco)天然气管道项目的实施进程。奥地利、匈牙利、罗马尼亚、保加利亚政府与土耳其政府就共同建设该管道签署政府间协议,意味着欧盟在摆脱对俄罗斯天然气依赖的道路上迈出了重要一步,标志着欧盟同俄罗斯在能源领域已经开始正面交锋。欧盟支持以纳布科天然气管道为主的"南部能源走廊"建设,还在于希望它成为欧盟与中亚等地区间商品、投资、信息与人员双向交流的一条动脉。针对纳布科天然气管道方案,俄罗斯采取多种手段加以应对:加快"南溪"(South Stream)天然气管道建设;加强与土耳其的能源合作力度,努力减少土耳其对纳布科管道的参与热情;加强对中亚国家能源生产和运输的控制,力图使纳布科管道成为无米之炊。纳布科管道从构想走向现实,将在一定程度上改变欧亚地区的能源供需格局,进一步凸显能源过境运输问题的重要性与敏感性。     

GSM:技术标准化联盟的成功案例

GSM是欧洲第二代移动通信标准，它成功地成为在全世界占主导地位的移动通信标准。GSM的成功有两个方面的原因，一是欧盟的统一标准化政策；二是技术标准扩散过程中技术标准化联盟的形成。技术标准化联盟是当代信息技术发展中的一种较普遍现象。GSM是技术标准化联盟成功的一个典型案例。该案例引发了我们对技术标准化中的知识产权保护、技术标准化联盟以及技术创新等问题的深入思考，这些问题对于中国的电信业改革与发展具有重要的现实意义。     

新政策背景下国内制药企业新药研发的思考

国内制药企业在新药研发中存在着一些误区,在新的政策背景下,企业应调整研发思路,形成符合自身实力和需求的开发策略.