IJMB Journal – Abstracts

International Journal of Management and Business

IJMB Volume VI, Issue 1

The Development and Commercialization of Personalized Medicine Applications

Thomas Crispeelsa*, Ilse Scheerlinckb

aDepartment of Business Technology and Operations,
Vrije Universiteit Brussels
bDepartment of Business, Vesalius College
Brussels, Belgium. E-mail: Thomas.Crispeels@vub.ac.be

ABSTRACT

Personalized Medicine (PM) – the tailoring of medical treatment to the patient’s individual needs – holds great promise for the future of healthcare. As PM entails a move away from the ‘one-pill-fits-all’ approach, it is bound to transform healthcare in critical areas such as research and development, market access and healthcare provision.
Existing management literature pays little attention to a company’s development and marketing strategies in the field of PM. This paper aims to contribute to the subject by investigating how and why companies access and integrate knowledge that is required for PM applications. The research question is: What influences the propensity of drug developing companies to engage in strategic alliances when developing and commercializing personalized medicine applications?
Drawing from the knowledge-based view of the firm, we build a theoretical framework based on expert interviews and case studies. We propose that two main factors influence a drug developing company’s strategic alliances with biomarker companies during development and commercialization of PM applications: (1) the drug developing company’s knowledge base on molecular diagnostics; and (2) the level of appropriability on the biomarker (reflecting a company’s intellectual property protection and degree of novelty). The analysis reveals four strategies for PM development and commercialization that, in the end may shape a company’s competitive position. The study also provides strategy recommendations on how managers in life sciences may improve access to knowledge in the field of PM.

Keywords: Inter-organisational collaborations; personalized medicine; drug development; knowledge-based view of the firm.

Click for full manuscript (PDF) or back to Volume 6-1, Table of Content.