Development of an Effective Intellectual Property Strategy for a Russian Pharmaceutical Company

This study deals with specifics of intellectual property (IP) management and use in a pharmaceutical company in Russia. Intangible assets account for more than 80% of the company’s value currently. One of the major forms of them are those created through innovation and protected by IP rights. The industries and companies that strongly rely on R&D should be on the forefront of their IP management, which when effective allows the companies not only to protect their intellectual results, but also to keep their positions on markets and enter new ones, to use them in bargaining and for partnerships. A typical example of knowledge- and innovation-intensive industries is pharmaceutical industry. This industry is one of the keys for the development of the Russian Federation; the government sees entering international pharmaceutical markets as a strategic task and the key role in it is given to the creation and protection of IP. Innovative pharmaceutical companies are, therefore, important for the development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry and it seems relevant, interesting and important to study how they use and manage their IP. At the same time, such a study is complicated by insufficient number of innovative Russian firms on the pharmaceutical market and the general lack of strategic IP management in those Russian companies that innovate. This research is an attempt to study the real managerial practices in relation to IP in one of innovative Russian pharmaceutical companies and to identify changes necessary for the most efficient use of IP. Using case study with IP portfolio analysis and interviews it was shown that although the strategic management of IP is performed with consideration of the company’s business strategy, such aspects of IP strategy as licensing, learning, valuation, coordination and education are executed not in the most efficient way. With consideration of the aims and goals that the company sets for itself as well as with the known literature approaches, this paper proposes set of recommendations for the company’s IP strategy update and its formalized development. When applied, those should ensure more coordinated work of managers, more intensive use of knowledge of a workforce and contribute to the creation of new IP and provide better protection for existing IP, potentially leading to a stronger market position for the company. Although it is impossible to extrapolate the results of this study to the entire industry, it forms the basis for further extensive studies aimed at understanding problems, barriers and the ways of their resolution in terms of IP strategies in pharmaceutical industry in Russia. The results of this work could potentially be useful to other innovative Russian pharmaceutical companies to consider the experience and recommendations of the case company in their practice.