The Economic Impact of South Carolina's life science industry : a statewide and regional analysis

The annual economic impact of the life science industry on the state of South Carolina totals approximately $11.4 billion in total economic output. The life science industry supports a significant demand for high-wage, high-skill jobs in various STEM fields. The life science industry in South Carolina currently consists of approximately 15,012 employees across 402 firms. South Carolina’s life science industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors over the past decade and has been a major contributor to the state’s current economic expansion. Since 2005, annual employment growth within the life science industry has averaged approximately 1.7 percent, which is more than twice that of the state as a whole over the same time period (0.8%)

Beyond patents: Scientific knowledge, and access to vaccine

Knowledge is a public good. Patents provide property rights in knowledge, which gives the patentee the right to exclude others from utilising the knowledge for the life of the patent. Patents in the field of pharmaceuticals are controversial because of the importance of the knowledge which they exclude others from using. Patents have come under significant criticism for this very reason – with some going as far as to claim that patent protection on pharmaceutical products as the cause of developing states having poor or limited access to life-saving pharmaceutical products. Most of the academic literature regarding access to medicines goes this same way. This paper challenges this viewpoint, and considers the barriers to generic access to medicines beyond patents. This paper looks beyond intellectual property rights to determine what other mechanisms exist that allow innovative vaccine manufacturers to control access to knowledge regarding their products which can act as a barrier to the utilisation of knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry, in a similar manner to intellectual property rights. This paper takes a case study approach considering non-patent-related barriers to access to medicines, focusing on pandemic influenza vaccines and the role of proprietary, non-patented knowledge. This paper concludes that manufacturers have an exclusive monopoly, not because of their intellectual property rights, but because the knowledge required to make the drug is not accessible to generic manufacturers, and highlights why this is the case. This paper argues that it is not the patent protection which is the barrier to introducing generic pandemic influenza vaccines, but rather it is the inaccessibility of knowledge which is not in the public domain, or the inability of manufacturers in developing states to utilise this knowledge, which is the true barrier in this field

Cannot make do without you: Outsourcing by knowledge-intensive new firms in supplier networks

How do new firms operating in dynamic environments organize their operations? Building on the transaction cost theory and the resource based view and using case study data from ten biotechnology start-ups and twenty of their suppliers, this research reveals that new firms outsourcing to highly-embedded suppliers are likely to secure access to a wider supplier network, attain best-in-class operational knowledge, and avoid supplier opportunism while facing low levels of relationship-specific investments. New firms outsourcing to suppliers at the network periphery are more likely to realize cost efficiencies, expose themselves to opportunism, uncertainty, and higher levels of relationship-specific investments but low levels of operational knowledge. We propose that new firms build five outsourcing competencies to realize benefits

Impact of Genomics on Biopharmaceutical Industry: Rare Diseases as Disruptive Innovation

Purpose Using a dynamic capabilities lens, this paper aims to study the impact of genomics generally and gene therapy specifically on the rare disease sector of the biopharmaceutical industry. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 24 genomics-based, rare disease-focused biopharma companies were studied and several variables were tested with respect to enterprise value growth. The companies were analyzed as a group of rare disease firms, as well as by size. Findings The authors found that number of employees, revenues, number of pipeline and marketed products and retained earnings are strongly correlated (in that order) with enterprise value in rare disease focused biopharma companies. These correlations seem to be weaker as a company’s market capitalization size decreases, indicating that there tends to be increasing returns to scale. Research limitations/implications This study found that increasing rates of cumulative returns to enterprise value growth depends on accumulating knowledge-based employees and expanding product portfolios of disruptive genomics-based technologies for treating rare diseases. Aggregating skilled and innovative employees (especially in bigger companies) can be seen as a cumulative bolstering factor in leveraging dynamic capabilities which can be recognized, understood and transformed into commercial success (i.e. increasing returns in enterprise value). In other words, technology managers’ job is to manage not only the financial aspects of the technology but also human resources, asset configuration and strategic alliances efficiently toward faster and better innovation. Strong dynamic capabilities can be formed with the accumulation of experience, articulation and codification of knowledge and an adaptive ability to change the way they solve problems as their environment transforms. Originality/value This is the first study to demonstrate and measure a relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise value in genomics-based rare disease firms. Further, this study highlights the importance of building the capability and capacity to absorb expertise and accumulate knowledge for new product innovations and sustainable competitive advantage in industries characterized by disruptive innovation

The life sciences industry in S.C.

This sheet gives statistics on the economic impact of the life sciences industry in South Carolina

Concentrated Announcements on Clustered Data: An Event Study on Biotechnology Stocks

In spring 2000, three events-two political statements by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair and a breakthrough announcement by Celera Genomics-had a major impact on biotechnology stocks. We analyze their effects over a comprehensive set of biopharmaceutical companies, using a composite return-generating model with an industry-specific patent-based factor. Our results show that stocks can be clustered according to their responsiveness to political and scientific events. Furthermore, we emphasize different impacts on the market value of intangible assets for each cluster, suggesting that growth options are valued with different criteria for therapeutics, and technology-based subsectors. Copyright (c) 2006 Financial Management Association International.