Asian Journal Of Social Pharmacy

Objective To study the characteristics and influencing factors of the transnational innovation cooperation network of digital technology in the pharmaceutical industry and to promote the construction of a new pattern of global digital pharmaceutical innovation cooperation. Methods An international cooperative innovation network was constructed based on the digital patents of the pharmaceutical industry jointly invented by 79 countries from 2009 to 2020. The overall structural characteristics, status evolution characteristics, spatial evolution characteristics, and influencing factors of the transnational cooperation network of digital technology in the pharmaceutical industry were analyzed using the social network analysis method and the time-exponential random graph model (TERGM). Results and Conclusion The main body of the digital technology transnational cooperation network in the pharmaceutical industry presents diverse forms and has the characteristics of a “small world”. Innovation entities have formed stable cooperative relations, but cooperation needs strengthening. The United States and Germany are strong cooperative countries, while some developing countries such as China, India, and Russia have been weak cooperative countries for a long time. The cooperation network is greatly affected by external environmental factors, showing a three-pronged pattern of Europe, Asia, and North America. The cooperation network tends to form triples and has strong polarization characteristics, which is driven by per capita, national income, population size, technological proximity, and geographical distance.

pharmaceutical industry, digital technology, cooperative network, time-exponential random graph model (TERGM)