Success in Pharmaceutical Research: The Changing Role of Scale and Scope Economies, Spillovers and Competition

This paper investigates the determinants of success in the development of new drugs. In specific, it explores the factors of success in drug development programs at different stages of innovation process. We use economies of scale, scope, R&D competition and technological spillovers as explanatory variables and test whether the effect of these variables on the success of a project differs in relation to the discovery and development stages of innovation, respectively. Our main finding is that spillovers, including spillovers from collaboration, are important in explaining the success of projects during the discovery stage of innovation, while in the later development stage, the effects of competition outweigh any benefits from spillovers.economies of scale and scope, spillovers, competition, R&D, innovation process

Collaboration in pharmaceutical research: Exploration of country-level determinants.

In this paper we focus on proximity as one of the main determinants of international collaboration in pharmaceutical research. We use various count data specifications of the gravity model to estimate the intensity of collaboration between pairs of countries as explained by the geographical, cognitive, institutional, social, and cultural dimensions of proximity. Our results suggest that geographical distance has a significant negative relation to the collaboration intensity between countries. The amount of previous collaborations, as a proxy for social proximity, is positively related to the number of cross-country collaborations. We do not find robust significant associations between cognitive proximity or institutional proximity with the intensity of international research collaboration. Moreover, there is no robust and significant relation between the interaction terms of geographical distance with social, cognitive, or institutional proximity, and international research collaboration. Our findings for cultural proximity do not allow of unambiguous conclusions concerning their influence on the collaboration intensity between countries. Linguistic ties among countries are associated with a higher amount of cross-country research collaboration but we find no clear association for historical and colonial linkages.International Cooperation, Pharmaceuticals, Proximity

Productivity and Heterogeneous Knowledge: Exploring the Relationship in a Sample of Drug Developers

This paper aims to investigate the effect of knowledge characteristics on the total factor productivity of firms developing drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. We decompose knowledge into knowledge associated with the technological firm portfolio and knowledge related to R&D projects, which represent drug development at the clinical testing stage. The latter is attributed to the knowledge of relevant markets where the drugs will be sold. The results show that the effect of technological coherence vs. market coherence and of accumulated knowledge on the productivity of firms differs. Productivity increases with the number of patents and decreases with the patent diversity and project portfolio coherence. When considering only the project knowledge, the diversity of the project portfolio positively affects productivity.total factor productivity, diversity,,coherence, knowledge

Success in pharmaceutical research: The changing role of scale and scope economies, spillovers and competition

This paper investigates the determinants of success in the development of new drugs. In specific, it explores the factors of success in drug development programs at different stages of innovation process. We use economies of scale, scope, R&D competition and technological spillovers as explanatory variables and test whether the effect of these variables on the success of a project differs in relation to the discovery and development stages of innovation, respectively. Our main finding is that spillovers, including spillovers from collaboration, are important in explaining the success of projects during the discovery stage of innovation, while in the later development stage, the effects of competition outweigh any benefits from spillovers

Technology, competition and the time of entry: Diversification patterns in the development of new drugs

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of R&D diversification strategies in the drug industry. It enriches the existing literature by proposing to look at diversification factors, which reflect market and technological proximity of an R&D project towards other projects within a firm's portfolio as well as R&D competition factors. Additionally, the characteristics of R&D in the market where a new potential product is developed affect future product choice. The analysis is performed for products-in-development data, merged with firms' patents, which allows us to separate project proximity in market niches from technological proximity. The results of empirical estimation support an idea that R&D diversification is governed by the economies of scope as well as the escape competition motive. Moreover, it is found that competition rather than spillovers in the niche where an R&D project is developed defines firms' decisions to diversify

Technological diversity and future product diversity in the drug industry

This paper deals with the topic of related R&D and innovation strategies of large firms. We ask what determines the diversity of a firm's product portfolio. More specifically, we try to explain large firms' expansion into new product markets driven by the characteristics of their technological knowledge. Empirically, we study firms in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, using relevant data on product development and technological knowledge. We find a positive relationship between the diversity of a firm's future product portfolio and the diversity of its stock of technological knowledge. This relationship becomes weaker when the breadth of technological knowledge increases

Collaboration in pharmaceutical research: Exploration of country-level determinants

In this paper we focus on proximity as one of the main determinants of international collaboration in pharmaceutical research. We use various count data specifications of the gravity model to estimate the intensity of collaboration between pairs of countries as explained by the geographical, cognitive, institutional, social, and cultural dimensions of proximity. Our results suggest that geographical distance has a significant negative relation to the collaboration intensity between countries. The amount of previous collaborations, as a proxy for social proximity, is positively related to the number of cross-country collaborations. We do not find robust significant associations between cognitive proximity or institutional proximity with the intensity of international research collaboration. Moreover, there is no robust and significant relation between the interaction terms of geographical distance with social, cognitive, or institutional proximity, and international research collaboration. Our findings for cultural proximity do not allow of unambiguous conclusions concerning their influence on the collaboration intensity between countries. Linguistic ties among countries are associated with a higher amount of cross-country research collaboration but we find no clear association for historical and colonial linkages

Productivity and heterogeneous knowledge: Exploring the relationship in a sample of drug developers

This paper aims to investigate the effect of knowledge characteristics on the total factor productivity of firms developing drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. We decompose knowledge into knowledge associated with the technological firm portfolio and knowledge related to R&D projects, which represent drug development at the clinical testing stage. The latter is attributed to the knowledge of relevant markets where the drugs will be sold. The results show that the effect of technological coherence vs. market coherence and of accumulated knowledge on the productivity of firms differs. Productivity increases with the number of patents and decreases with the patent diversity and project portfolio coherence. When considering only the project knowledge, the diversity of the project portfolio positively affects productivity

Spiritual (Including Folklore) Culture As a Tool for Teaching the Russian Language in a Multicultural Environment: Practical Experience

The article discusses the issues of improving the methodology of teaching the Russian language and the effectiveness of teaching the Russian language in a multicultural environment with the inclusion of elements of spiritual culture (including folklore) in educational institutions (humanitarian gymnasiums, high schools and institutions of higher education) of the Republic of Mari El. The authors demonstrate differences in the use of folklore in the main (class, out-of-class and out-of-school) activities of the experimental network institutions (Federal Institute for the Development of Education, Moscow) and the training workshop (‘Prosveshchenie’ Publishing House). It is concluded that projects aimed at socio-cultural adaptation, successful socialization and enculturation of Russian youth are of great importance from different angles, including the issue of harmonizing interpersonal and intercultural relations in modern Russian society. The authors’ experience (E. A. Plotnikova, M. N. Pirogova) in introducing certain units of Russian traditional culture into the study of the Russian language by foreign students also had certain positive reviews. It is obvious that at the initial stage of training, students should receive a certain linguistic minimum, including knowledge of the country’s culture, traditions, features of verbal and non-verbal communication, etc. Application of innovative educational technologies, including quests and competitions, gives good results in this case. Keywords: multicultural environment, spiritual culture, folklore culture, teaching the Russian languag

Folklorism of the Contemporary Youth’s Creative Work

Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been an increased interest in traditional forms of culture, which is probably associated with an increase in the national self-awareness of the peoples of the Russian Federation. Based on this, the authors considered the features of the use of the folklore heritage of Russian creative youth. The authors have studied the creative works of 24 young writers aged from 25 to 35. In particular, they have studied the types of folklorism in their creative works, provided the general estimate of the productivity and significance of the youth’s experience of using the folkloric heritage in the modern literary process and generally in culture. The paper is defining the phenomena of the youth culture in the early decades of the 21st century (fiction, CG). The authors have made a conclusion on the diversity of the youth’s creative works’ connection with the folkloric samples: the construction of the social-ethnographic reality, the field of the characters’ identity, a new ‘cosmos’, creation of the individual universes as well as the literary version of folkloric fairytale on their basis. We have also noted the tendency towards the use of the Russian folkloric characters with the purpose of giving them some universal traits of the characters of the popular computer games. The authors found that the fabulous texts are used by young authors in both the genre category and one of the ways to create on their basis new texts, various types of aesthetic experiments and games