Pharmaceutical Cluster in Belgium

Table of Contents

1.        Introduction/Problem Statement        3

2.        Literature Review        3

3.        Description of the Pharmaceutical Cluster        5

4.        Evolution and History of the Pharmaceutical Cluster        5

5.        Successful Operation of the Belgian Pharmaceutical Cluster        6

6.        Threats of the Biopharmaceutical Cluster        6

7.        Collaborations with Firms and Government        6

8.        New Entrepreneurial Initiatives        7

9.        Supply Chain Considerations        8

10.        Limitations of the Cluster        8

11.        Conclusions        9

References        10

1. Introduction/Problem Statement

Belgium is a country of contrasts, on one hand you have a small domestic market characterize for the lack of resources (Bryant, 2017). On the other hand, it is considered in the top 20 of most competitive nations worldwide (World Economic Forum , 2017).  Belgium has three regions: Flanders Wallonia and Brussels each of them contributes with the progress of the country by having areas of specialization. These areas are concentrated mainly in large export clusters: plastics, jewelry, chemicals and biopharmaceuticals.

Belgium is considered one of the largest investor and exporter of pharmaceutical products in the world in absolute figures (Belgian Foreign Trade Agency, 2015). This because of the internal factors such as a strong network of more than 160 hospitals and the excellent quality of the Academia (Belderbos, Carree, Lokshin, & Fernández Sastre, 2014) At the same time, the combination between those two factors promotes the research and development and the knowledge spill over from both institutions can benefit the biopharmaceutical cluster.  

The biopharmaceutical cluster also contributes in the growth and continuous development of the biotechnology, exploring new chemicals usages and the manufacturing and distribution through the logistic sector of the products.  Nowadays, the cluster generates 32% of the export basket which represent the largest share for Belgium’s Economy (Index Mundi, 2018). In the last 30 years the pharmaceutical industry has had a positive trend sales growth of 10% annually. Additionally, the biopharmaceutical cluster generates more than $55 billions on export value to Belgium according to the International Cluster Competitiveness Profiles (ICCP, 2015).

In Belgium, the cluster is without a doubt one of the most important sectors of the economy, but it has some risks. Though, the constant dispute between the regions and the scarce of qualify skilled labor. The main purpose of the paper is to implement a nationwide cluster strategy to harmonize the dispute between regions and improve the scarce availability of skilled labor workers in the biopharmaceutical cluster.

1. Literature Review

During the analysis of the cluster it may be noticed that everything starts with an idea of becoming stronger, someone was an entrepreneur and the companies involved in the creation of the cluster play and important role (Baumol, 1990). Also, Policy makers have related the development of high tech and research and development industries to different programs targets to High Growth Firms (Brown, Mawson, & Mason, 2017). Many of the initiatives try to promote the economic growth and the development of the cluster. Some of the research mention that small firms that might be related to cluster or high-tech activities (e.g. biopharmaceutical technology) create proportionally more new jobs than large firms (Carree, Congregado, Golpe, & Stel, 2013).

Clusters are considered a geographic concentration of many companies, suppliers, services, related sectors institutions and associated with organizations from a particular field. The diverse interaction between the capacity of adaptation and the evolution of the conglomerates should be studied to understand the advances in the pharmaceutical industry, the development of new technology and the different evolutions that may exist, in addition to the heterogeneity in the actions of the companies (Østergaard, Richter, & Kyung, 2015).

During the entire process of the creating of the Belgian Pharmaceutical cluster, the combination of innovative firms and their entrepreneurs have had profound advancements like the creation of vaccines and new medicines. Even though those action might be taken as creations of new technology, all of them have some entrepreneurial spirit (van Stel, Carree, & Thurik, 2005).  Schumpeter described in many texts that firms have many challenges including the introduction of new inventions in order to update the product and move to the next generation. He also mentioned, that large firms increase the research and development activities in order innovate first. This is a process known as Schumpeter Mark II regime (van Stel, Carree, & Thurik, 2005).

Inside the Pharmaceutical cluster, the social habitat of the different regions is an important boost for the regional entrepreneurial incremental growth. The main functions of these regions are to work as incubators to promote creativity and development of human capital (Lee, Florida , & Acs , 2004). Which led the firms inside the cluster to be more concerned about having a high labour productivity, well trained personnel, well-built infrastructure and networks between clients, suppliers and firms inside the area (Verheul, Caree, & Santarelli, 2009).

As mention, the combination of creativity, innovation and research and development determined the success of a specific cluster but is mainly on collaboration that a cluster can guarantee its realization (Davidsson & Honig, 2003).

1. Description of the Pharmaceutical Cluster

Within the pharmaceutical cluster, there are two stages: Research and Development and the management of supply chain and each of them involve some sub activities.  R&D has the Drug discovery and the initial screening, follow by some Preclinical trials to provide information about dosing and toxicity levels (FDA, 2018) in order to turn to the clinical trials in people.  Later on, a new drug is approved and authorized as a new medicine by the European regulatory system for medicines (European Medicines Agency, 2016).  The next phase is the Supply Chain Phase, that goes from the manufacturing of the drug in different facilities, the proper marketing distribution and sales to different markets across the world (Yousefi, 2015). In the year 2016, North America represented 49% and Europe 21.5% of total pharmaceuticals sales in the world (EFPIA, 2017).