Big Pharma, Little Science? Working paper on Big Pharma's decline of internal R&D

[Ismael Rafols]

Dear all,

please find attached a working paper:


    *Big Pharma, Little Science?**A bibliometric perspective on big
    pharma's R&D decline*
    <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/ir28/pharma/bigpharmalittlescience.pdf>

Ismael Rafols, Michael M. Hopkins, Jarno Hoekman,Josh Siepel, Alice O'Hare,
Antonio Perianes-Rodríguez and Paul Nightingale

*Working paper available at: http://www.interdisciplinaryscience.net/pharma
*

*Abstract*

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a 
productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new 
drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores 
pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of 
all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms 
during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry 
in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total 
number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative 
increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to 
outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular 
towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also 
evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D 
laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. 
Finally, while publications by big pharma in emerging economies sharply 
increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed 
countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a 
gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on 
external research. These empirical insights support the view that large 
pharmaceutical firms are increasingly becoming 'networks integrators' 
rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.

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