Intervention and Technological Innovation : Government and the Pharmaceutical Industry in the UK and Japan

Major Japanese service culture collections A2.1 Culture collection survey framework A2.2 Survey culture collections: where based A2.3 Date of establishment of culture collections A2.4 Key equipment and facility levels in culture collections A2.5 Orientation of culture collections This book is based on research which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of its 'initiative' on government-industry relations (Project Number YE 05250014). During the research we benefited from the generous assistance of Professor Michael Goodfellow of the Department of Microbiology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who made use of his numerous contacts to get us entry to a large number of university, public and semipublic research laboratories both in Japan and the UK. He accompanied us on two visits to Japan, asking numerous technical questions which neither of us would have thought of. Murakami Takahisa of the Ministry of Health and Welfare provided us with introductions to officials and researchers associated with the Japanese pharmaceutical industry, easing our path to an understanding of how government relates to industry and vice versa. In 1987 (April to October) and in 1989 (April to August), Ian Neary spent time in Japan based first in the Department of Law, Fukuoka University, and secondly in the Graduate School of Policy Science, Saitama University. Colleagues in both institutions were very supportive but, in particular, on both occasions Professor Daichi Ito went out of his way to provide hospitality and suggestions for possible directions for our research. Thanks also go to Margaret Sharp from SPRU, University of Sussex who commented on earlier drafts of the biotechnology policy sections of the book. Maurice Wright and Stephen Wilks, in association with Professor Ito and his colleagues, organised conferences and seminars in the UK and Japan to which we were invited to present papers. These were not only occasions when we could observe how the other researchers in the programme were progressing, but, since they included guests from Japan and 'practitioners', they amounted to further opportunities to extend our network of contacts. Our work in the UK and in Japan was composed to a great extent of meeting with bureaucrats, academics and a large number of company executives who were engaged in pharmaceutical policy, research or practice. We spent many hours talking with them, but for the most part they wished to be anonymous, and though we are unable to thank them by name, our writing would have been substantially weaker were it not for the insights and information they provided. xi ABPI Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (UK) BERD Business Expenditure on Research and Development (UK) BGMA British Generics Manufacturers Association (UK) BIDEC Bio-Industries Development Centre (Japan) Controversy continues about the ability of the state to promote international competitiveness of industry in general and of specific industries in particular. This study examines how the policies of the British and Japanese governments have affected the development of the pharmaceutical industries in each country. Three areas are given close attention: policies which aim to control prices or profits; patent policy; and science and technology promotion policy, particularly policies for biotechnology. Prospects for these policies are considered in the context of moves towards harmonisation of pharmaceutical regulation. This study examines how the policies of the British and Japanese governments have affected the development of the pharmaceutical industries in each country. It gives close attention to three main policy areas.