Modern Healthcare asks Iain Cockburn about measuring biotech R&D growth in emerging markets
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Iain Cockburn |
For the article “Taking Flight,” about increases in biotech-related clinical trials in emerging markets, Modern Healthcare magazine’s Shawn Rhea interviews Iain Cockburn, Boston University School of Management Professor and Everett V. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar in Finance and Economics. Rhea reports,
U.S. academic medical centers have long been the worldwide citadel of pharmaceutical and medical-device research and development, attracting billions of dollars annually in private and public funding. Over the past five years, however, countries such as China and India have begun claiming seats at the profitable R&D table, according to a study released this month….
[But] pinpointing the pace of growth in clinical trials being conducted outside of the U.S.-particularly in emerging markets-is difficult. Iain Cockburn, a professor at Boston University's School of Management and author of the pharmaceuticals chapter in the collected studies Innovation in Global Industries: U.S. Firms Competing in a New World, says that significant R&D growth in emerging markets is not yet a measurable trend. “I think the big problem is we just don't know how big it is,” he explains. “There's not the kind of footprint and official statistics that will give us the sense of what's going on” in those fledgling markets.
