The contribution of (not so) public research to commercial innovations in the field of combinatorial chemistry

This paper examines the roles that publicly funded research play in the process of combinatorial drug discovery. It is shown that firms rely heavily on public research knowledge and, even more so, on education in organic chemistry, genomics and biochemistry. Publicly funded research also led to the creation of dozens of chemical-based companies, provided firms with an access to a larger network of innovators and generated important instruments and methods that are being used throughout the value chain of combinatorial drug discovery. The effects of public research, however, often look different depending on whether one sees them through the prism of larger or smaller firms, EU15 countries or the US, universities or other PROs.