NETWORKS AND HIERARCHIES IN BIOSCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

This paper has four key objectives. The first is to examine the knowledge management mechanisms by which DBFs tackle the R&D or ‘drug discovery’ process and determine the nature of their specific advantage. Second it attempts to assess the adequacy of these mechanisms and how industry and intermediaries judge they can be strengthened from self-evaluation and benchmarking. Third it tests for ‘big pharma’, hypotheses concerning the cognitive paradigm shift linking ‘Mode 2’ knowledge production, the demise of ‘discovery’ methods and rise of ‘rational drug design’, and fine chemistry versus molecular biology as candidate sources of their knowledge management weaknesses. Then it aims to determine knowledge management difficulties arising from supply chain relationships, and assess the extent big pharma seeks or is capable of rescuing in-house R&D capabilities in a post-genomic era. The paper proceeds by means of detailed documentary analysis followed by both quantitative and qualitative data intended to address the stated objectives of the paper.