Article published on technological upgrading in the Indian pharmaceutical industry

Dr Dinar Kale, Senior Lecturer in International Development and Innovation in the Development Policy and Practice group, has published a study of technological upgrading in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, in the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

His article explores how some leading Indian pharmaceutical firms have been moving away from producing ‘small molecule generics’ – the classic, chemically synthesized drugs which are relatively simple to make – and towards new opportunities in the emergent global market for more complex ‘biosimilar’ drugs.

The article reveals the significant role of the domestic market, as opposed to the export market, in the technological upgrading of Indian firms.

It shows how internationalisation, in the form of overseas acquisitions and collaborations with multinational corporations, formed the key basis of the firms’ technology upgrading strategy.

And it highlights the critical role of overseas scientists in managerial and scientific capability upgrading.

Upgrading technology capability is a key element of industrialisation and catch-up in developing countries. This study, coming at a time when the changing nature of technologies and industries are creating new patterns of capability development, has implications for other emerging countries.