SN Business & Economics

In the literature, it is widely discussed whether the pharmaceutical industry is going through an innovation crisis. Unfortunately, no comprehensive review exists to date that outlines the main empirical findings. In this paper, we provide an extensive survey on what is currently known about the crisis and its reasons. The empirical evidence shows that project success rates decreased over time, while attrition rates, development times, and the costs per new drug increased. The reasons for these developments are quite complex. The crisis seems to have largely technological causes. The enormous scientific progress in biotechnology and related disciplines has increased the opportunities to treat diseases, but the firms have difficulties transforming these advances into new and effective medicines. More basic research is necessary and the links between science and industry should be strengthened. Some measures have recently been taken to better adapt the approval process to current developments. However, the persistently high number of consolidations in the industry seems to have largely detrimental effects.

Research on infodemics, i.e., the rapid spread of (mis)information related to a hazardous event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, requires integrating a multiplicity of scientific disciplines. The dynamics emerging from infodemics have the potential to generate complex behavioral patterns. To react appropriately, it is of ultimate importance for the fields of Business and Economics to understand these dynamics. In the short run, they might lead to an adaptation in household spending or to a shift in buying behavior towards online providers. In the long run, changes in investments, consumer behavior, and markets are to be expected. We argue that the dynamics emerge from complex interactions among multiple factors, such as information and misinformation accessible to individuals and the formation and revision of beliefs. (Mis)information accessible to individuals is, amongst others, affected by algorithms specifically designed to provide personalized information, while automated fact-checking algorithms can help reduce the amount of circulating misinformation. The formation and revision of individual (and probably false) beliefs and individual fact-checking and interpretation of information are heavily affected by linguistic patterns inherent to information during pandemics and infodemics and further factors, such as affect, intuition, and motives. We argue that, to get a deep(er) understanding of the dynamics emerging from infodemics, the fields of Business and Economics should integrate the perspectives of Computer Science and Information Systems, (Computational) Linguistics, and Cognitive Science into the wider context of economic systems (e.g., organizations, markets or industries) and propose a way to do so. As research on infodemics is a strongly interdisciplinary field and the integration of the above-mentioned disciplines is a first step towards a holistic approach, we conclude with a call to action which should encourage researchers to collaborate across scientific disciplines and unfold collective creativity, which will substantially advance research on infodemics.