Workshop on

New Entrants versus Incumbents in Biotechnology: Lessons from Japan for the U.S.

Women's Faculty Club at the University of California-Berkeley

You are invited to participate in a workshop examining new evidence from Japan on the ability of incumbent firms to commercialize new scientific breakthroughs in bioscience. The workshop addresses how the Japanese experience can inform the U.S. community about likely impacts of shifting more of the total biotech activity in the U.S. from new biotech firms to large incumbent firms. With a merger wave well underway in the U.S., it is a good time to raise issues related to both commercialization by pre-existing firms and combinations of pre-existing and new biotech firms. Are scientists of very different ability associated with these different kinds of firms? Does the linkage to science change in some basic way? How are decisions made about strategy of the firm?

This small and informal workshop will explore what is known about these issues, including changes in the life cycle of an industry that may directly impact how commercialization takes place--slower pace of formation of new firms, slower entry rates by existing firms, less venture capital available to the industry, and a lower rate of going public (making venture capital investments less likely to pay off for the investors). We again can rely on a natural experiment, comparing Japan to the U.S., since in Japan most of the institutional constraints that operate only later in the industrial life cycle in the U.S. are operative right from the very beginning of the industry (e.g., little venture capital and low probability of going public).

The workshop will have four panels: one on entry into biotech in Japan of primarily incumbent firms, the second on university contributions to firm success in Japan, the third on innovation in incumbent firms within the framework of financial and societal institutions, and the last a mixed industry/government/academic panel on the general issues raised including the generalizability of the Japan results. Each panel except the last will be followed by a discussant; all panels will be followed by general discussion. Details of the content and participants are in the program which begins on the next page.

Pre-Registration is free and required to attend the workshop, have lunch, and obtain a day parking permit. If you wish to attend, please fax back the enclosed form. A map detailing how to get to the Women's Faculty Club at the University of California-Berkeley appears at the end of this document.

The workshop is sponsored by grants from The University of California Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program and The Center for Global Partnership of The Japan Foundation. It is organized by the Center for International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy in the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research, by the John M. Olin Center for Policy in The Anderson School at UCLA and by the Organizational Research Program of the Institute for Social Science Research at UCLA.

Workshop on

New Entrants versus Incumbents in Biotechnology: Lessons from Japan for the U.S.

Women's Faculty Club at the University of California-Berkeley

Workshop on

New Entrants versus Incumbents in Biotechnology: Lessons from Japan for the U.S.

Women's Faculty Club at the University of California-Berkeley

Your name____________________________________________________________________

Affiliation_____________________________________________________________________

Address_______________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Phone no.____________________________ Fax no._____________________________

Do you need a parking permit? Yes____ No____

Will you be attending the lunch? Yes____ No____

If so, do you prefer vegetarian food? Yes____ No____

Please immediately fax any change in plans to 1-310-454-2748

or e-mail to darby@ucla.edu

Limited travel awards are available from the Biotechnology Program for University of California students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, and staff. For applications, please call the Program office at 510-643-2584 no later than March 25, 1999.

The Women's Faculty Club is located at C6 just northwest of the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. The telephone number for the Club is 510-845-5084.