Kobe University Repository : Kernel タイトル Industrial Technological Trajectories and Corporate Technology Title Traditions : The Development of Antibacterial Drugs in Japan 著者 Hara, Takuji Author(s) 掲載誌・巻号・ページ The Annals of the School of Business Administration, Kobe Citation University,41:1-18 刊行日 1997 Issue date 資源タイプ Departmental Bulletin Paper / 紀要論文 Resource Type 版区分 publisher Resource Version 権利 Rights DOI JaLCDOI 10.24546/81003680 URL http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_kernel/81003680 PDF issue: 2021-09-29 Industrial Technological Trajectories and Corporate Technology Traditions: The Development of Antibacterial Drugs in Japan* Takuji Hara I. Introduction We have to consider two levels of the path of technology, when we talk about the technological change of a firm. One is the industrial technological trajectory' which is historically observed in the industry as a whole. The other is the corporate technology tradition' (CTT) which is seen in an individual company. A clarification of industrial technological trajectories and corporate technology traditions is very useful for elaborating the theory of industrial technological change and for drawing practical implications for the management of technology. There are, however, few empirical studies of industrial techno- logical trajectories or corporate technology traditions. One of the rare studies is Achilladelis' study (1993) of the technological innovation in the sector of antibacterial medicines. He found four technological trajectories in that sector, namely, sulphonamides, natural product antibiotics, semisynthetic antibiotics and synthetics. The most active period of each trajectory was the 1930s, the 1940s-1950s, the 1960s-1970s, and the 1980s-1990s respectively. He also found corporate technology traditions in some companies. For example, Upjohn, Pfizer and Lilly had CTTs in natural products antibiotics, Pfizer and Lederle had them in tetracyclines, Beecham and Bristol had them in semisynthetic penicillins, and Glaxo and Lilly had them in cephalosporins. According * The funding for this study was provided by the Japan Ministry of Education , Science, Sports and Culture (grants 08730071). 1. This is based on the concept of natural trajectory developed by Nelson and Winter (1977). However, we do not use their terminology because the words "technological trajectory" make the concept more concrete . Similarly, we do not use the concept of technological paradigm promoted by Dosi (1982), because any technological change in this case can be described without the concept. 2. This concept comes from Achilladelis (1993). He defined corporate technology tradition as the "concentration of a company's R & D resources on a particular technology for very long periods of time leading to the introduction of many innovations embodying this technology." (p. 281) 2 T. Hara to him, early entries with a radical innovation which was commercially very successful have led to the development of CTTs in antibacterial medicines. He also stated that CTTs are usually confined within a single technological trajectory, and that CTTs may extend over two successive trajectories when the two trajectories share some characteristics, or when the new technology can be easily appropriated. This study will develop Achilladelis' study into a more-detailed one and add more consideration of the construction process of industrial technological trajectories and corporate technology traditions. For this, we choose the development of antibacterial drugs as a research site like Achilladelis, although ours is limited only to the Japanese experience. The observation of the experience of a certain nation may produce another benefit, that is, the opportunity for international comparison. We may be able to derive some characteristics of the technological change of Japanese pharmaceutical firms, which were latecomers to the world pharmaceutical industry. In the next section, we will describe the case of the development of antibacterial drugs in Japan. In Section Three, we will interpret this case and extract some hypotheses. In the final section, we will point out some implications of this study and some issues for further study. II. The Development of Antibacterial Drugs in Japan It is since the middle of the 1960s that Japanese firms have become active in the development of antibacterial drugs. Although some antibacterial drugs were developed before the middle of the 1960s, for example, kanamycin (discovered in 1957, commercialized in 1958) and fradiomycin (discovered in 1948, commercialized in 1960) by the Hamao Umezawa group, leucomycin (discovered in 1953, commercialized in 1957) and mitomycin (discovered in 1956, commercialized in 1964) by the Hata group of the Kitasato Institute and colistin (discovered in 1950, commercialized in 1957) by Yasuo Koyama, they were developed mainly by researchers in universities or academic institutes. Pharmaceutical firms also developed some antibacterial drugs in the early 1960s. Sulfamethoxazole, commercialized in 1960 by Shionogi, and sulf a- monomethoxine, commercialized in 1961 by Daiichi, both of which were effect-lasting types of sulphonamide, are examples of those drugs. However, most of the antibacterial drugs of Japanese origin were Industrial Technological Trajectories and Corporate Technology Traditions 3 developed after the middle of the 1960s by firms. Therefore, we concentrate our analysis on the period since that time. Table 1 presents the antibiotics and synthetic antibacterial drugs of Japanese origin which were given approval for manufacturing by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW)3 from 1967 to 1994. By categorizing these data and observing them historically, we can find at least five characteristics of the development of antibacterial drugs in Japan. Table 1: Antibacterial drugs developed in Japan (1967-1994) Year of Medicine Production Chemical name Trade name Company Drug family approval form method bekanamycin sulfate Kanendomysin Meiji aminoglycoside 69. 04. injection natural p. enramycin * * * not sold * ** Takeda peptide 70. 01. natural p. josamycin Josamaycin Yamanouchi macrolide 70. 01. oral use natural p. cefazolin sodium Cefamejin Fujisawa chphem 71. 04. injection semi syn. ribostamycin sulfate Vistamycin Meiji aminoglycoside 72. 08. injection natural p. piromidic acid Panacid Dainippon synthetic 72. 08. oral use syn. sulcenicillin sodium Lilacillin Takeda penicillin 72. 08. injection semi syn. midecamycin Medemycin Meiji macrolide 73. 01. oral use natural p. dibekacin sulfate Panimycin Meiji aminoglycoside 74. 07. injection semi syn. bleomycin sulfate Bleomycin Nihon-kayaku anticancer 74. 09. injection natural p. josamycin propionate Josamy-drysyrup Yamanouchi macrolide 75. 01. oral use semi syn. propionylmaridomaycin * * * not sold * * * Takeda macrolide 75. 01. semi syn. enviomycin sulfate Tuberactin Toyo-jyozou peptide 75. 04. injection natural p. amikacin sulfate Amikacin Banyu aminoglycoside 76. 08. injection semi syn. neocarzinostatin Neocarzinostatin Kayaku anticancer 76. 08. injection natural p. talampicillin Yamacillin Yamanouchi 77. 03. oral use semi syn. hydrochloride penicillin ceftezol sodium ceftezole sodium (Fujisawa) cephem 77. 08. injection semi syn. pivmecillinamh Melysin Takeda penicillin 78. 05. oral use semi syn. ydrochloride pipemidic acid Dolcol Dainippon synthetic 78. 08. oral use syn. piperacillin sodium Pentcillin Toyama penicillin 79. 05. injection semi syn. cefmetazole sodium Cefmetazon Sankyo cephem 79. 08. injection semi syn. cefotiam Pansporin Takeda cephem 80. 10. injection semi syn. dihydrochloride cefsulodin sodium Takesulin Takeda cephem 80. 10. injection semi syn. peplomycin sulfate Pepleo Nihon-kayaku anticancer 80. 10. injection semi syn. minronomycin sulfate Sagamicin Kyowa aminoglycoside 81. 09. injection natural p. cefoperazone sodium Cefoperazin Toyama cephem 81. 09. injection semi syn. latamoxef sodium Shiomarin Shionogi oxacephem 81. 12. injection semi syn. ceftizoxime sodium Epocelin Fujisawa cephem 81. 12. injection semi syn. cefmenoxime Bestcall Takeda cephem 82. 10. injection semi syn. hemihydrochloride 3. As is generally known, there is a seven to ten year gap between the discovery of a drug and its approval. In this study, we operationally regard the year of approval as the year of development. 4 T. Hara Trade name Company Drug family Year of Medicine Production Chemical name approval form method cefotetan sodium Yamatetan Yamanouchi cephem 83. 05. injection semi syn. norfloxacin Baccidal Kyorin synthetic 84. 02. oral use syn. astromycin sulfate Fortimicin Kyowa aminoglycoside 85. 04. injection natural p. cefbuperazone sodium Tomiporan Toyama cephem 85. 04. injection semi syn. cefpiramide sodium Suncefal Yamanouchi cephem 85. 04. injection semi syn. midecamycin acetate Miocamycin Meiji macrolide 85. 04. oral use semi syn. ofloxacin Tarivid Daiichi synthetic 85. 04. oral use syn. enoxacin Flumark Dainippon synthetic 85. 08. oral use syn. cefpimizole sodium Ajicef Ajinomoto cephem 86. 09. injection semi syn. rokitamycin Ricamycin Toyo-jyozou macrolide 86. 09. oral use semi syn. lenampicillin Varacillin Kanebo 86. 09. oral use semi syn. hydrochloride penicillin aspoxicillin Doyle Tanabe penicillin 87. 03. injection semi syn. cefixime Cefspan Fujisawa cephem 87. 06. oral use semi syn. cefteram pivoxil Tomiron Toyama cephem 87. 06. oral use semi syn. cefuzonam sodium Cosmocin Lederle(JP) cephem 87. 06. injection semi syn. cefminox sodium Meicelin Meiji cephem 87. 06. injection semi syn. carumonam