Collaborating to Compete: A Search into Capabilities and Strategic Alliances in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Athough there is a profusion of studies related to strategic alliances and technological capacities which evaluate the issues individually, there is a scarcity of studies with empirical evidence relative to the implications of strategic alliances at the technological capacity configuration. Drawing on a scrutiny of specialised databases (Galé, Dialog, and Business & Industry) covering the 1993-2003 period, this article examines the entry and exit composition of innovative capabilities of 25 pharmaceutical companies’ capabilities involved in such alliances. They are organised in three groups: (i) large pharmaceutical companies (‘big-pharma’); (ii) large bio-pharmaceutical companies (‘bio-pharma’); and (iii) small and research-intensive companies. In terms of strategic alliance implications, a change was observed on the technological capacities’ configuration. The evidence suggests that the criteria for partner choice and technological capacity depend on the objectives and needs of each different group of company. Such type of evidence is important to provide researchers, corporate managers, and policy-makers with a concrete notion of the extent to which such division of innovative labour occurs and the actual changes going on the structure and organisation of innovative activities in the pharmaceutical industry.Titulo: Colaborando para Competir: Búsqueda Dentro de las Capacidades y Alianzas Estratégicas en la Industria Farmacéutica Pese a la existencia de muchos estudios relacionados a las evaluaciones individuales de las alianzas estratégicas y las capacidades tecnológicas, hay escasez de estudios con evidencia empírica relacionados con las implicaciones de las alianzas estratégicas en la configuración de las capacidades tecnológicas. Este artículo organiza un escrutinio de bases de datos (Galé, Dialog, and Business & Industry) entre los años del período 1993-2003, examinando la composición de entrada y salida de las capacidades innovativas de 25 compañías farmacéuticas involucradas en dichas alianzas. Las cuales se organizan en tres grupos (i)¨grandes compañías (grandes farmacéuticas); (ii)grandes compañías bio-farmacéuticas (bio-farma); y (iii) pequeñas compañías y compañías de investigación intensiva. En términos de las implicaciones de las alianzas estratégicas, se observa un cambio en la configuración de las capacidades tecnológicas. La evidencia sugiere que el criterio de para la elección de socios y de las capacidades tecnológicas depende de los objetivos y necesidades de los diversos grupos de compañías. Cada tipo de evidencia es de importancia para proveer a los investigadores, a los gerentes corporativos y los gestores con una noción concreta del grado de de importancia de cada división en las labores innovativas desarrolladas y en los cambio reales que se llevan a cabo en la estructura y la organización de las actividades innovativas en la industria farmacéutica .Athough there is a profusion of studies related to strategic alliances and technological capacities which evaluate the issues individually, there is a scarcity of studies with empirical evidence relative to the implications of strategic alliances at the technological capacity configuration. Drawing on a scrutiny of specialised databases (Galé, Dialog, and Business & Industry) covering the 1993-2003 period, this article examines the entry and exit composition of innovative capabilities of 25 pharmaceutical companies’ capabilities involved in such alliances. They are organised in three groups: (i) large pharmaceutical companies (‘big-pharma’); (ii) large bio-pharmaceutical companies (‘bio-pharma’); and (iii) small and research-intensive companies. In terms of strategic alliance implications, a change was observed on the technological capacities’ configuration. The evidence suggests that the criteria for partner choice and technological capacity depend on the objectives and needs of each different group of company. Such type of evidence is important to provide researchers, corporate managers, and policy-makers with a concrete notion of the extent to which such division of innovative labour occurs and the actual changes going on the structure and organisation of innovative activities in the pharmaceutical industry

Dehydriding and rehydriding reactions of LiBH₄

Structural differences in LiBH₄ before and after the melting reaction at approximately 550 K were investigated to clarify the experimental method for the confirmation of reversible dehydriding and rehydriding reactions. Since the long-range order of LiBH₄ begins to disappear after the melting reaction was achieved, investigation of the atomistic vibrations of the [BH₄]-anion in LiBH₄ was found to be effective for the confirmation of the reversibility. In the present study, LiBH₄ was successively dehydrided (decomposed) into LiH and B under 1 MPa of hydrogen at 873 K, and then rehydrided (recombined) into LiBH₄ under 35 MPa of hydrogen at the same temperature (873 K). The temperatures at the beginning and ending of the dehydriding reaction are lowered, by approximately 30 K, for LiBH₄ substituted (or mixed) with Mg (atomic ratio of Li:Mg=9:1) as compared to those for LiBH₄ alone. This is similar to the tendency exhibited by LiNH₂

Ocular manifestations and pathology of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma associated with human T-lymphotropic virus type 1

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), endemic in defined geographical areas around the world, is recognized as the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), or HTLV-1. ATL is a rare adult onset T-cell malignancy that is characterized by the presence of ATL flower cells with T-cell markers, HTLV-1 antibodies in the serum, and monoclonal integration of HTLV-1 provirus in affected cells. Ocular manifestations associated with HTLV-1 virus infection have been reported and include HTLV-1 uveitis and keratoconjunctivitis sicca, but reports of ocular involvement in ATL are exceedingly rare. This article describes the ocular manifestations and pathology of ATL. We also report for the first time a case of a 34-year-old male with systemic ATL and prominent atypical lymphoid cell infiltration in the choroid. To our knowledge, this is the first report defining prominent choroidal involvement as a distinct ocular manifestation of ATL. ATL may masquerade as a variety of other conditions, and molecular techniques involving microdissection and PCR have proven to be critical diagnostic tools. International collaboration will be needed to better understand the presentation and diagnosis of this rare malignancy

Exact results of the mixed-spin Ising model on a decorated square lattice with two different decorating spins of integer magnitudes

The mixed-spin Ising model on a decorated square lattice with two different decorating spins of the integer magnitudes S_B = 1 and S_C = 2 placed on horizontal and vertical bonds of the lattice, respectively, is examined within an exact analytical approach based on the generalized decoration-iteration mapping transformation. Besides the ground-state analysis, finite-temperature properties of the system are also investigated in detail. The most interesting numerical result to emerge from our study relates to a striking critical behaviour of the spontaneously ordered 'quasi-1D' spin system. It was found that this quite remarkable spontaneous order arises when one sub-lattice of the decorating spins (either S_B or S_C) tends towards their 'non-magnetic' spin state S = 0 and the system becomes disordered only upon further single-ion anisotropy strengthening. The effect of single-ion anisotropy upon the temperature dependence of the total and sub-lattice magnetization is also particularly investigated.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Firefly distribution and abundance on mangrove vegetation assemblages in Sepetang estuary, Peninsular Malaysia

Pteroptyx fireflies are commonly reported to congregate in large numbers in mangroves. Not much is known about the relationships between firefly distribution and abundance with specific mangrove vegetation assemblages. We conducted a study to investigate the vegetation assemblages that structure the distribution and abundance of Pteroptyx tener in Peninsular Malaysia. The distribution and abundance of fireflies were assessed along an 8 km stretch of mangroves in Sepetang estuary using visual assessment. Statistical analysis was carried out to test the correlation between length of display section and percentage cover of P. tener colonies and the relationship between percentage cover of fireflies with different vegetation assemblages. Five distinct vegetation assemblages were identified comprising different combination of four mangrove species. It was found that shorter display sections had higher percentage cover of P. tener colonies. In addition, vegetation assemblage which consisting of mainly Sonneratia caseolaris and Nypa fruticans was the most preferred type. The results of this study point to the necessity to consider not only a single mangrove species but the entire vegetation assemblage for firefly conservation

Intraguild predation of water scorpion Laccotrephes japonensis (Nepidae: Heteroptera)

Previous work on community structure of the invertebrate fauna of Japanese wetlands indicates the presence of intraguild predation between the heteropterans Laccotrephes japonensis (Nepidae) and Kirkaldyia deyrolli (Belostomatidae). We designed a series of experiments to understand the biotic interactions of several species of sympatric heteroptera and their shared prey. Adult Laccotrephes japonensis (Nepidae), first-instar nymph of Kirkaldyia (=Lethocerus) deyrolli (Belostomatidae), Hyla japonica tadpole, and fourth-instar nymph of Appasus japonicus (Belostomatidae) have been shown to be intraguild predator, intraguild prey, common prey, and prey of L. japonensis, respectively. To further understand the factors affecting prey preference by L. japonensis, we also examined the comparison of swimming speed in the three prey animals (K. deyrolli first-instar nymph, A. japonicus fourth-instar nymph, and H. japonica tadpole), and effects of prey animals on weight gain of L. japonensis adult. Despite there being no significant difference in weight gain or swimming speed of the three prey species, L. japonensis exhibited a strong preference for the 1st-instar nymph of K. deyrolli. We suggested that this may be evidence for one of elimination of a potential competitor, K. deyrolli, by L. japonensis through intraguild predation

Tunneling Time Distribution by means of Nelson's Quantum Mechanics and Wave-Particle Duality

We calculate a tunneling time distribution by means of Nelson's quantum mechanics and investigate its statistical properties. The relationship between the average and deviation of tunneling time suggests the exsistence of ``wave-particle duality'' in the tunneling phenomena.Comment: 14 pages including 11 figures, the text has been revise

Geologic fault model based on the high-resolution seismic reflection profile and aftershock distribution associated with the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture earthquake (M6.8), central Japan

Treatment with empagliflozin, an inhibitor of the sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), is associated with slower progression of diabetic kidney disease. In this analysis, we explored the hypothesis that empagliflozin may have an impact on urinary peptides associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this post-hoc, exploratory analysis, we investigated urine samples obtained from 40 patients with uncomplicated type 1 diabetes (T1D) before and after treatment with empagliflozin for 8 weeks to for significant post-therapy changes in urinary peptides. We further assessed the association of these changes with CKD in an independent cohort, and with a previously established urinary proteomic panel, termed CKD273. 107 individual peptides significantly changed after treatment. The majority of the empagliflozin-induced changes were in the direction of "CKD absent" when compare to patients with CKD and controls. A classifier consisting of these 107 peptides scored significantly different in controls, in comparison to CKD patients. However, empagliflozin did not impact the CKD273 classifier. Our data indicate that empagliflozin induces multiple significant changes in the urinary proteomic markers such as mucin and clusterin. The relationship between empagliflozin-induced proteomic changes and clinical outcomes merits further investigation

Life Cycle of the Water Scorpion, Laccotrephes japonensis, in Japanese Rice Fields and a Pond

A Laccotrephes japonensis (Nepidae: Heteroptera) population was studied based upon mark and recapture censuses in order to elucidate the seasonal pattern of habitat utilization in a rice paddy system including an irrigation pond between April and October, in 2006 and 2007. The seasonal pattern of nymphs and adults did not differ markedly between the rice fields and the pond. Survival rates of L. japonensis of all stages did not differ between the rice fields and the pond in 2006, but were lower in 2007 in both habitats. In 2007, however, the survival rate of L. japonensis nymphs in the pond was higher than in the rice fields. In rice fields, 36.3% of the overwintering adults were recaptured the following year. On the other hand, the recapture rate after overwintering in the pond was only 6.4%. Migration from the pond to the paddies and vice versa was observed. In summary, the rice fields and the pond may reinforce each other as reproductive and overwintering sites of L. japonensis, especially during unfavorable years