Who is interested in biotech? R&D strategies, knowledge base and market sales of Indian biopharmaceutical firms

This paper addresses three main questions on Indian pharmaceutical firms that have integrated biotechnology in their marketing, production or research activities: (i) What kind of labour stocks of the knowledge base have an impact on market sales? (h) Which components of the R&D strategy are strategic substitutes and which are strategic complements? (iii) What are the distinguishing features of firms that have already integrated biotechnology in their research activities? The paper shows that market sales are an increasing function of qualified labour stocks. Internal R&D and foreign collaborations are strategic substitutes, while patents and publications are strategic complements. Firms that are active in biotechnology research are likely to be younger and implementing more aggressive learning strategies. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.