Technological paradigms and trajectories as determinants of the R&D corporate change in drug discovery industry

Abstract

The present inductive study shows two main effects of new technological paradigms in medicine driven by convergent genomics, genetics and proteomics (e.g., targeted therapies): 1) division of scientific/technological labour by strategic alliances among firms to reinforce the integrative capabilities in different biomedical research fields in order to support drug discovery process; 2) cumulative and collective learning by network R&D organisations to integrate in-house R&D and external sources of innovation in order to accelerate the discovery of path-breaking drugs for personalised healthcare. Relationships between observed facts are analysed to establish some general implications concerning the impact of technological paradigms on R&D corporate change for supporting the modern discovery process.