Exploring the effects of interorganizational collaborations during the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of drug development

This chapter applies a qualitative methodology to explore how Covid-19 has affected the collaboration of multiple stakeholders in the biopharmaceutical industrial ecosystem. The main outcomes from the study are: 1) Collaboration and speed are necessary; 2) A multistakeholder-led response is required; 3) Global Covid-19 lockdowns are levelling the playing field for actors in the ecosystem; 4) Processes have changed and become more adaptable but R & D focuses have not; 5) Collaboration is not new but the scale of collaboration is novel in thebiopharmaceutical industry; 6) More efficient collaboration practices should be expected in a future without Covid-19; and finally, 7) Pandemics do not overpower well-established tensions in collaboration. Implications for managers, policy makers and researchers are discussed.