Multilayer Network Analysis of the Drug Pipeline in the Global Pharmaceutical Industry

Generally, open innovation is a lucrative research topic within industries relying on innovation, such as the pharmaceutical industry, which are also known as knowledge-intensive industries. However, the dynamics of drug pipelines within a small-medium enterprise level in the global economy remains concerning. To reveal the actual situation of pharmaceutical innovation, we investigate the feature of knowledge flows between the licensor and licensee in the drug pipeline based on a multilayer network constructed with the drug pipeline, global supply chain, and ownership data. Thus, our results demonstrate proven similarities between the knowledge flows in the drug pipeline among the supply chains, which generally agrees with the situation of pharmaceutical innovation collaborated with other industries, such as the artificial intelligence industry.