Managing R&D Activities in the Italian Biotech Industry. A Comparison of Investments from MNCs and Domestic Firms

This paper aims at analyzing the main features of Research and Development (R&D) activities carried out by the Italian biotech companies. It was decided to focus on the biotech industry, because of the specific features of its knowledge firms (Kamath, 2007), that deeply influence both the strategic behavior of firms and the economic environment of the countries where they operate. Keeping in mind the different types of biotech firms operating at global level, it was finally decided to concentrate on the Italian red biotech segment (that is healthcare biotech companies which develop drugs and diagnostics). The Italian independent firms and Multinational Companies (MNCs) were studied separately. Analyzing the peculiarities of how Italian independent firms and MNCs manage R&D activities, efforts were made to find out the existence of a different approach to R&D investments. This paper is divided into four main parts. In the first part, the main relevant features of biotech firms are discussed and the literature background presented. The second part deals with sample and methodology description. In the third part, the main results regarding the analysis of R&D activities carried out by the red Italian biotech companies are presented. The paper ends with the conclusion.