Regional science policy and the growth of knowledge megacentres in bioscience clusters



and employment, it can make an important indirect contribution to economic welfare
through possible academic and corporate spin-out activities. It is likely that regional
analysis and policy will be more rather than less influenced by issues such as those
discussed in this paper in future.

6. Conclusions

These are brief and orientated towards future implications for regional science and
policy rather than being a simple reprise of what has been said. First, of significance
to the never-ending debate about the viability of SMEs in a globalising world
dominated by multinational firms, events during the past decade or so show just how
misplaced arguments prophesying the demise of SME significance can be. It is ‘big
pharma’ that is in crisis as its traditional expertise in fine chemistry is subverted by
the molecular biology revolution and the demand for transdisciplinary teams of DBFs
to form project-based networks to seek ‘rational drug design’ solutions based on
reagents and their inhibitor compounds at the molecular and even sub-molecular
levels. Meanwhile ‘big pharma’s’ drug innovation pipeline dries up as R&D costs
escalate, giving a further imperative to externalise projects to the ‘knowledge value
chain’. DBFs in turn rely effectively upon the deep pockets of ‘big pharma’ for
licensing cash, marketing and distribution. Some DBFs are now quite large and one
(Celltech) recently bought a mid-size ‘pharma’ (Medeva) in the UK. Other global
‘pharma’ has been merging at pace recently as they seek to reap one-off shareholder
value from reducing the competition as Glaxo, Pfizer, Wyeth, Aventis and Novartis to
name a few, testify. The regional science implications of these shifts towards public
R&D exploration and exploitation and away from ‘big pharma’s’ traditional
metropolitan redoubts require swift and serious analysis.

In regional policy terms, the new model is more foresight-driven, more collaborative,
based on shared vision and leadership than old redistributive policy used to be. This is
necessarily policy for securing ‘generative growth’ (Cooke, 2002c). It must take
seriously the long-established presence of hospitals and universities and seek to forge
links along the biosciences value chain. It must do this in a sometimes hostile
environment in which national or federal governments prefer to see a few Centres of
Excellence, possibly not too far away from their seats of government, rather than in

29



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