Intellectual Human Capital and the Emergence of Biotechnology: Trends and Patterns, 1974–2006

We present an analysis of the trends and patterns documenting the role of intellectual human capital in the emergence of knowledge within both new biotech ventures and incumbent pharmaceutical firms. We leverage individual-level data detailing the publication and citation records for more than 284 000 scientists employed by biotech and pharma firms between 1974 and 2006. During this 33-year time period, these scientists published nearly 1.2 million academic papers that were cited 16.8 million times. Through a detailed analysis of these data, we attempt to gain insights into the similarities and differences between the activity, productivity, and movement of star and nonstar scientists across both biotech and pharma firms over time.