Problem-driven innovations in drug discovery: Co-evolution of the patterns of radical innovation with the evolution of problems

•Molecular biology is supporting the drug discovery.•Specific problems support source and evolution of technology in medicine.•Stakeholders in biopharmaceutical industry have incentives to find innovative solutions for unsolved problems.•Target therapy for lung cancer is generating a revolution in clinical practice.•Data-sharing policies promote R&D process for an efficient healthcare ecosystem.

A fundamental problem in the field of the product innovation management in biopharmaceutical industry is how to explain the general source of drug discovery and radical innovations that sustain the competitive advantage of firms and technological progress in medicine. The current study confronts this problem by developing a conceptual framework of problem-driven innovation. The inductive study, based on ground-breaking drugs for lung cancer treatment, shows that the perception and solution of problem is an invariant force that supports the source of radical innovation and evolution of new technology in medicine. In fact, the evolution of radical innovations, driven by the evolution of consequential problems, is one of main determinants that generates a technological change in biopharmaceutical and other industries. This finding, in a Schumpeterian world of innovation-based competition, is due to the organizational behavior of leading firms that have a strong incentive to find innovative solutions to unsolved problems in order to achieve the prospect of a (temporary) profit monopoly. The main aim of this article is therefore to clarify and to generalize whenever possible, the source and evolution of path-breaking innovations in medicine to explain the long-term technological change in society. The study here also shows the important role of data-sharing health policy in order to solve problems and promote innovation for better therapies and an efficient “healthcare ecosystem”.