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

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.