Introduction
The Japanese pharmaceutical industry exemplifies the nation's general drive towards a dominant global standard, a model characterized by high research intensity and high innovative readiness. Pharmaceutical companies that do not follow this lead are destined to forfeit market power. This trend emerged in the late 1980s, up till when Japan's pharmaceutical firms found themselves in an ideal environment for their immediate intents and purposes. Protected from international competition, these firms were able to charge excessive prices for products for which there would be little or no demand on a global scale. The regulatory regime made the pharmaceutical industry by far the most profitable activity in Japan at the time (Odagiri and Yamawaki, 1986). However, times have changed, as the Japanese government has successfully reduced prices for pharmaceuticals and reduced entry barriers for foreign firms. As a result, Japanese companies have witnessed a dramatic decrease in their domestic market share. To offset this trend, they have started to redefine their strategies towards a higher degree of internationalization.
However, striving for internationalization is easier said than done, since global pharmaceutical markets are intensely science-based and competition is mainly driven by innovative new drugs offering additional value to patients. The Japanese regulatory regime, however, has favoured incremental innovation and thus local firms had only limited experience with research excellence. Moreover, it was all too often good personal relations with the health authorities that secured fast-track approval of new drugs in Japan, thereby giving Japanese firms a competitive edge over foreign rivals. Success factors in international markets have been totally different. Consequently, it has been difficult for most Japanese pharmaceutical companies to navigate into and within global markets. The path chosen by most Japanese firms has been to increase their R&D budgets and set up R&D centres abroad, in order to tap into foreign knowledge bases.
This strategic shift is reflected in the stark increase in scientific publications authored by researchers from Japanese pharmaceutical firms. In other words, Japanese firms have responded to the new challenges with heavy investment in intangible capital. This article examines whether such a strategy has been rewarded by financial markets. In order to do this, we have aimed to estimate the influence intangible capital has on stock market capitalization. Taking patents and scientific publications as indicators of intangible capital stock, our results suggest that only patents drive the market value of a firm; scientific papers authored by company researchers do not. The remainder of this paper provides a brief overview of the Japanese market for pharmaceuticals, before introducing the analytical framework of this empirical exercise. The paper closes with a discussion of the results and a conclusion.