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'Brain drain' is viewed as a curse for developing countries but analysis suggests it may provide crucial advantage to some countries. 'Reverse brain drain' of engineers and scientists trained in the USA or Europe can accelerate technological catch-up. Communities of returned scientists and engineers can provide skill and know-how to help local firms shift to higher value-added activities. However, transfer of knowledge through human mobility is not a straightforward process. This paper presents insights regarding diffusion of knowledge through migration of scientific labour, using case studies of innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intellectual property regime forms an important part of any government's economic and industrial policies. It is an important regulatory instrument not only affecting industry and market structure but also influencing firm-level learning strategies, especially in knowledge-based industries like pharmaceuticals. Given its crucial role, the strengthening of patent laws as a result of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement presents a significant institutional change for developing country industry. This paper analyses Indian pharmaceutical firms' strategic response to the strengthening of patent law. The research in this paper shows that Indian pharmaceutical firms responded to anticipated disruptive regulatory change by developing competencies incrementally as well as radically. Ambidextrous capability development involved explorative investment in R&D to develop innovative product R&D competencies and in parallel also involved exploitative use of existing process R&D capabilities. This ambidextrous capability development has enabled Indian pharmaceutical firms to survive and compete with multinational corporation (MNC) pharmaceutical firms, showing other catch-up firms a different path of capability development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some industrially advanced developing countries have, in the last decades, built substantial pharmaceutical scientific and industrial capabilities. The more advanced of these countries have built chemical and biological R&D, generic and reverse engineering, and drug discovery capabilities. There have been tremendous barriers to entry but nevertheless a range of imitative approaches have evolved, with some significant scientific, health and industrial advances. Opportunities in India are in part created by the problems of maturity being faced by big pharmaceutical firms in developed countries. Big pharmaceutical firms are searching for novel approaches to retain a high value-added model of innovation for drug development. These difficulties provide opportunities for innovative companies in developing countries. This paper explores the challenges faced under these circumstances by Indian pharmaceutical companies. Are they attempting to 'catch-up' by chasing a failing model of innovation? Do they have an alternative model? Or can they become an important part of a transformed new global model of pharmaceutical innovation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of how Indian pharmaceutical firms have transformed themselves from reverse-engineering firms focused on the domestic market to research-driven firms with global presence. It analyses the crucial and changing role of national, then international, innovation and regulatory policies and their impact on growth, performance and technology evolution of Indian pharmaceutical firms. The paper argues that although public policy increased market turbulence, it also provided new opportunities for firms to expand and build new technology, knowledge and market capabilities. From the 1950s Indian firms have pursued a variety of research, marketing and internationalization strategies to tackle changes prompted by policy, markets and knowledge complexities. The paper traces firm strategies that vary both in time and by firm, and argues that the successful firms have evolved substantively towards knowledge-based strategies. The paper then attempts to identify future directions for strategy, knowledge and markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on the development of pharmaceutical industry before and after the implementation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in India. They cite that between 1950s to 1960s the industry has a weak growth due to multinational company subsidiaries while in 1970s it has massive changes because of the government policy. The TRIPS legislation has driven transformations in the industry that lead to global competitiveness.