Premium
Mergers and Innovation: Declining Commitment to Pharmaceutical Research
Author(s) -
Jones Oswald
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.1996.tb00238.x
Subject(s) - pharmaceutical industry , incentive , competition (biology) , duopoly , work (physics) , business , industrial organization , economics , marketing , market economy , microbiology and biotechnology , engineering , mechanical engineering , ecology , welfare , biology
Using the work of Michael Porter it is argued that the success of the UK pharmaceutical industry has been the result of ‘vigorous’ domestic competition. It now appears that the UK industry will effectively become a duopoly dominated by Glaxo‐Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. This will reduce the incentive to innovate new products which has been central to the pharmaceutical industry's success in recent years. In addition, the broader implications for the UK economy are also depressing as the pharmaceutical industry makes a disproportionate contribution to industrial expenditure on R&D.