A Study On The Evolution Of Biopharmaceutical Innovation Network

Rapid develpment of biopharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the world industrial system by promoting regional economic development and maintaining social health. Biopharmaceutical industry is believed to be a strategic industry. Compared with other high-tech enterprises, biopharmaceutical industry has its own particularity. For example, drug testing and approval will be governed by strict laws and regulations. There are strict requirements in drug safety; pharmaceutical companies should bear social and ecological responsibility. Integration of internal and external factors facing competitive environment, drug patent expiration and resources scarcity promote the biopharmaceutical industry from independent innovation model to open innovation model based on cooperation. No biopharmaceutical enterprises can complete a new drug's R&D innovation independently; the cooperation model based on specialization has become the basis of biopharmaceutical industry. Location theory based on geographical proximity in economic geography has been unable to explain development of biomedical innovation. Therefore, establishing an'Actors-Resources-Activities'analytical framework, the paper tries to explore the internal mechanism of the evolution of biopharmaceutical innovation network by analyzing partnerships among the different actors.The author draws three conclusions based on lots of documents and interviews with biopharmaceutical firms in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park and in Nanjing city.Firstly, biopharmaceutical innovation network has outstanding characteristic. Compared with other high-tech industries, biopharmaceutical industry has its own characteristics. It is controlled strictly by government departments and the pharmaceutical industry must have a high degree of social responsibility. Consumers request much more safety of drugs than other products. The scarcity of resources caused increasing cost and difficulty in R&D of drugs. Biotechnology progress could relieve the relative scarcity, but promote the knowledge and innovation cooperation among the different actors in biopharmaceutical industry. Facing the rapid globalization in the background of knowledge economy, biopharmaceutical industry has experienced from the cost-driven stage to the innovation-driven stage. Under the support of translational medicine and national innovation system, biopharmaceutical innovation network is formed and developed through global-local pipelines to achieve diffusion flow of knowledge and innovation.Secondly, innovation cooperation and collective learning promote evolution and development of biopharmaceutical innovation network jointly. The author finds out that innovation cooperation and collective learning are the main drivers of network evolution and vary in different development stages so that the network has different characteristics. There are business cooperation, R&D cooperation, financial cooperation and licensing partnership between different actors within the innovation network. These partnerships have played different roles through various development stages. Biopharmaceutical innovation networks went through evolution of independent innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, localization of innovation network and global innovation networks.Thirdly, biopharmaceutical innovation networks have regional differences between developing and developed countries. The biopharmaceutical innovation network in developed countries was evaluated through two main lines of the vertical level of cooperative relationship which promoted continuous improvement of drug innovation. In order to obtain cutting-edge technology and track the core technology, developing countries tend to establish cooperation with enterprises in developed countries. Learning mechanism is the main driving force of biomedical innovation network in developing countries. The significant regional differences in driving forces, evolution characteristics and development modes have been shown in biopharmaceutical industry between developing countries and developed countries.