Problem-driven innovations in drug discovery: co-evolution of the patterns of radical innovation with the evolution of problems

A fundamentalprobleminthe field oftheproductinnovationmanagementinbiopharmaceutical industryis how to explainthegeneralsourceofdrugdiscoveryandradicalinnovationsthatsustain thecompetitiveadvantageof firmsandtechnologicalprogressinmedicine.Thecurrentstudy confrontsthisproblembydeveloping aconceptualframeworkof problem-driven innovation. The inductive study,basedonground-breakingdrugsforlungcancertreatment,showsthatthe perceptionandsolutionofproblemisaninvariant forcethatsupportsthesourceofradical innovationandevolutionofnewtechnologyinmedicine.Infact,theevolutionofradicalinnovations, drivenbytheevolutionofconsequentialproblems,isoneofmaindeterminantsthatgeneratesa technologicalchangeinbiopharmaceuticalandotherindustries.This finding,inaSchumpeterian world ofinnovation-basedcompetition,isduetotheorganizationalbehaviorofleading firms that haveastrongincentiveto find innovativesolutionstounsolvedproblemsinordertoachievethe prospect ofa(temporary)profit monopoly.Themainaimofthisarticleisthereforetoclarifyandto generalizewheneverpossible,thesourceandevolutionofpath-breakinginnovationsinmedicineto explainthelong-termtechnologicalchangeinsociety.Thestudyherealsoshowstheimportantrole of data-sharinghealthpolicyinordertosolveproblemsandpromoteinnovationforbettertherapies andanefficient "healthcareecosystem".