Company’s Expectation for the Collaboration with Star Scientists: the case of pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

In a "science-based industry," where the outcomes of academic scientific research are leveraged for product development, it is quite important for companies to collaborate with star scientists. A variety of scientific knowledge and technologies provided by academic researchers have been utilized throughout the process of drug discovery, a typical case of science-based product development. This paper provides three cases of innovative drug discovery and development in Japanese pharmaceutical industry to demonstrate the significant contributions of star scientists. Based on the referred cases, I discuss how an industry-university-government collaboration can effectively translate academic research to product development. In addition, I introduce initiatives made by pharmaceutical companies for seeking opportunities of academic research collaboration and needs to search for future star scientists. I also highlight the expectations toward star scientists and potential collaboration issues from the perspective of pharmaceutical companies.