Centre for Technology Management

Developmental Conditions of UK biopharmaceutical ventures

E. Garnsey

Centre for Technology Management, Institute for Manufacturing,

University of Cambridge Engineering Department, Cambridge CB2 1RX

ABSTRACT

A Penrosean approach is applied to UK biopharmaceutical firms in the 1990s to explain the interplay of internal and external dynamics in new firms' development. The way the biotech sector has emerged shapes the external conditions in which new ventures operate. The very distinctiveness of biotech ventures illuminates common developmental processes in all new firms. The capacity of firms of this kind to create outstanding value attracts investors, ostensibly on a longer term basis than in other sectors. But, facing similar problems of start up and growh as other new firms, UK biopharm ventures are under pressure to achieve returns before most of them are capable of fulfilling their potential.