Towards mission-driven investment in new antimicrobials? What role for Chinese strategic industrial financing vehicles in responding to the challenge of antimicrobial resistance?

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) causes high levels of global mortality. There is a global need to develop new antimicrobials to replace those whose efficacy is being eroded, but limited incentive for companies to engage in R&D, and a limited pipeline of new drugs. There is a recognised need for policies in the form of 'push' and 'pull' incentives to support this R&D. This article discusses China, a country with a rapidly emerging pharmaceuticals and biotech (P&B) sector, and a history of using coordinated innovation and industrial policy for strategic and developmental ends. We investigate the extent to which 'government guidance funds' (GGFs), strategic industrial financing vehicles (a 'push' mechanism), support the development of antimicrobials as part of China's 'mission-driven' approach to innovation and industrial policy. GGFs are potentially globally significant, having raised approximately US$ 872 billion to 2020. RESULTS: GGFs have a substantial role in P&B, but almost no role in developing new antimicrobials, despite this being a priority in the country's AMR National Action Plan. There are multiple constraints on GGFs' ability to function as part of a mission-driven approach to innovation at present, linked to their business model and the absence of standard markets for antimicrobials (or other effective 'pull' mechanisms), their unclear 'social' mandate, and limited technical capacity. However, GGFs are highly responsive to changing policy demands and can be used strategically by government in response to changing needs. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the very limited role of GGFs in developing new antimicrobials, their responsiveness to policy means they are likely to play a larger role as P&B becomes an increasingly important component of China's innovation and industrial strategy. However, for GGFs to effectively play that role, there is a need for reforms to their governance model, an increase in technical and managerial capacity, and supporting ('pull') incentives, particularly for pharmaceuticals such as antimicrobials for which there is strong social need, but a limited market. Given GGFs' scale and strategic importance, they deserve further research as China's P&B sector becomes increasingly globally important, and as the Chinese government commits to a larger role in global health.

Private equity firms and industrial policy: elaborating the state-finance nexus in state-led markets.

Under what conditions can the state discipline private equity firms into delivering the investment required to meet the coming needs of industrial transformation? States have sought to crowd in private capital to finance industrial development, but the results have so far been less than satisfactory. Prevailing accounts of financial industry power largely characterise an arms-length state-finance relationship that has unfolded in private-led markets where private equity firms have contributed to the secular growth in non-productive economic activity. This article problematises the assumption of private-led markets and argues that state-led markets present a counterfactual in which the disbursement of public money entails strict policy discipline and tight embedding between the state and private equity firms, which provides the conditions for them to emerge as unlikely champions of industrial policy. Two cases of co-investment between Chinese and European sovereign wealth funds demonstrate the power dynamics at play. Where PE firms in the Sino-Irish co-investment facilitated the international scaling of Irish firms in China, the PE firms operating in Europe failed to embed Chinese firms into regional supply chains in the Sino-Belgian co-investment.

The Chinese plug-in electric vehicles industry in post-COVID-19 era towards 2035: Where is the path to revival?

The sudden Coronavirus Disease reported at the end of 2019 (COVID-19) has brought huge pressure to Chinese Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) industry which is bearing heavy burden under the decreasing fiscal subsidy. If the epidemic continues to rage as the worst case, analysis based on System Dynamics Model (SDM) indicates that the whole PEVs industry in China may shrink by half compared with its originally expected level in 2035. To emerge from the recession, feasible industrial policies include (1) accelerating the construction of charging infrastructures, (2) mitigating the downtrend of financial assistance and (3) providing more traffic privilege for drivers. Extending the deadline of fiscal subsidy by only 2 years, which has been adopted by the Chinese central government, is demonstrated to achieve remarkable effect for the revival of PEVs market. By contrast, the time when providing best charging service or most traffic privilege to get the PEVs industry back to normal needs to be advanced by 10 years or earlier. For industrial policy makers, actively implementing the other two promoting measures on the basis of existing monetary support may be a more efficient strategy for Chinese PEVs market to revive from the shadow in post-COVID-19 era.

Industrial policy for sustainable human development in the post-Covid19 era.

National and local societies all around the world are fighting the most dramatic global public health emergency of our time, which has soon become an economic, social and human crisis touching all key dimensions of our lives. Within an inevitable revamping attention on the need for government intervention to face the challenges raised by the Covid19 pandemic, industrial policy is appearing as a central piece of the puzzle. As production dynamics in every country is highly affected by the crisis, industrial policy is considered part of the response to solve dramatic economic and social problems deriving by extraordinary levels of unemployment, deprivation and poverty. In this paper, we argue that a turning point on the connection between industrial policy, sustainability and development has been reached, highlighting the need to rethink its theoretical foundations as well as its governance and implementation processes for a new role in our post-Covid 19 societies. Therefore, the research question underlying this paper deals primarily with the nexus between the debate on industrial policy and its effects in terms of human development, social cohesion and sustainability. For this reason, we attempt at closing the gap between different strands of literature, whose integrated connection leads to a new analytical framework with real-world implications on the role of industrial policy, not only as tool for productive dynamics, but also as a leverage for sustainable human development. All in all, we aim at contributing to the debate on our post-Covid19 economies and societies in two ways: firstly, by providing a new integrated analytical framework on industrial policy to steer a sustainable structural change of our economies and societies towards sustainable human development; secondly, by identifying preliminary implications on industrial policy governance and implementation, investing in the accurate and transparent design of industrial policy in the post-Covid19 era.

Balancing Industry and Drug Policy Objectives in the Pharmaceutical Sector: The Case of China.

Objectives This article assessed the balance between industry and drug policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector in China. Methods The articles were mainly identified through databases such as Elsevier, Google Scholar, and SpringerLink, among others. Related articles were mainly separated into three categories: studies on drug policies, studies related to China's new health-care reform policy, and studies concerning patent policies. Results A relatively healthy environment for continuous innovation and drug patent protection in the pharmaceutical industry has been created in China, and the public's drug benefits have also significantly improved. However, the balance between industrial and drug policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector in China requires additional attention. Discussion and conclusions The results suggest that the government should pay more attention to incentivizing enterprises' innovation, but the current Essential Medicines System in China has limited innovation. Hence, the mechanism for selecting essential medicines should be reformed, and certain appropriate and reasonably innovative medicines should be included. Additionally, medicine coverage, especially the coverage of essential drugs for primary care should be expanded to improve public health benefits. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry should be incorporated into the prospective National Drug Policy to achieve a balance between public benefits and pharmaceutical industry development in the future.

Research on the Impact of Industrial Policy on the Innovation Behavior of Strategic Emerging Industries.

Cultivating strategic emerging industries (SEIs) is an important strategy for most countries around the world to seize the economic frontier. Academics have not yet reached a unified conclusion on whether the adoption of industrial policy from the government level can effectively promote its R&D and innovation behaviors and contribute to industrial upgrading. Based on the data regarding 33,425 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share-listed companies from 2007 to 2020, this article employs the difference-in-difference model (DID) and the mediated effect model to identify the effect and mechanism of how industrial policy affects the innovation behavior of SEIs. The results of this study show that the promulgation and implementation of industrial policies can help stimulate enterprises to carry out R&D and innovation behaviors and improve the innovation level of SEIs. Its promoting effect on state-owned enterprises is more significant than that on non-state-owned enterprises, and its promoting effect on the eastern and central regions is more significant than that on the western region. Further analysis reveals that government subsidies and tax incentives are important transmission mechanisms through which industrial policy affects firms' innovation, with government subsidies playing a positive facilitating role and tax incentives having a negative impact.

A double machine learning model for measuring the impact of the Made in China 2025 strategy on green economic growth.

The transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is supported by smart and green manufacturing, which have great potential to empower the nation's green development. This study examines the impact of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy on urban green economic growth. This study applies the super-slacks-based measure model to measure cities' green economic growth, using the double machine learning model, which overcomes the limitations of the linear setting of traditional causal inference models and maintains estimation accuracy under high-dimensional control variables, to conduct an empirical analysis based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021. The results reveal that the Made in China 2025 strategy significantly drives urban green economic growth, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that the Made in China 2025 strategy promotes green economic growth through green technology progress, optimizing energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening environmental supervision. In addition, the policy has a stronger driving effect for cities with high manufacturing concentration, industrial intelligence, and digital finance development. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and policy implications for government planning to promote high-quality development through industrial policy.

The role of geographic distances in green industrial pilot policies evaluation: A sustainability transition perspective.

Green industrial policies (GIPs) aim to promote the adoption of green technology within a sustainability framework. While previous evaluations of GIP have focused more on the policy itself and the impacts within the policy boundaries, this paper further introduces the geographical factor to analyze the impact of different spatial geographic distances on implementing GIP. By integrating geographic distances into a spatial difference-in-differences analysis to assess the effects of municipal green industry policies (referred to as green industry pilot policies in this paper) enacted in 11 cities in China from 2006 to 2010, we find that these policies not only improve environmental and economic outcomes in targeted regions but also have spillover effects that may affect neighboring areas negatively, highlighting the importance of geographic considerations. The effectiveness of green industrial policies varies across cities, influenced by local socio-technical systems and regional characteristics such as infrastructure and information technology. These findings suggest that policy impacts are complex and multifaceted, requiring a comprehensive understanding of geographic interdependencies. By incorporating geographic factors, this research contributes to sustainability transition theory by offering insights into the spatial and temporal dynamics of socio-technical systems. The results underscore the need for policymakers to consider spatial-temporal aspects and potential secondary effects on adjacent regions when designing and implementing green industrial policies.

Employment Growth and Industrial Policy: The Challenge for Indian States.

The nature of and the future potential for economic growth will vary across Indian States because of their differences in the rates of demographic transitions. The growing population of the young in some of the States in the east and north of the country, notably Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, opens up a huge economic opportunity. It is also a serious policy challenge-to create new opportunities that meet the rising expectations of the job aspirants. At the same time, for States such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have an ageing population, there are limits to future growth based on labour-intensive sectors. Across Indian States, during the period between 2005 and 2018, labour absorption into industry, construction and services lagged way behind the increase in the potential supply of workers into these sectors. The mismatch between labour demand and potential labour supply widened after 2012, leading to an increase in unemployment rates and a large-scale withdrawal of women from the labour market. For reviving employment growth, India requires a mix of social, employment and industrial policies. The States should have greater financial and functional autonomy to implement these policies in a way that suit their specific stages of development.

Empirical insights into industrial policy's influence on phytoprotection innovation.

Intelligent Phytoprotection is an important direction for the modern development of plant protection related disciplines, and its essence is the innovative application of new generation information technology industry, high-end equipment manufacturing industry, and digital industry related technologies in the traditional plant protection field. This article first identifies 224 International Patent Classification (IPC) Main groups in the field of intelligent phytoprotection technology based on the International Patent Classification System. And then combines with China's industrial policy practice, we explore the impact of industrial policy on the application number of invention patents in the field of intelligent phytoprotection technology using the Difference-in-difference (DID) method and the Synthetic DID method. The study results showed that the implementation of industrial policy can significantly promote the patent application activities in the intelligent phytoprotection treatment group, with an average increase of 517 invention patent applications compared to the control group that is not affected by the policy. The research conclusion of this article suggests that for countries and regions, industrial policies are an important tool for promoting the innovation and development of intelligent phytoprotection related technologies.

Industrial policies of integrated energy services in China: A perspective of qualitative analysis.

Integrated energy services (IESs) are a systematic improvement and structural optimization of energy from production to consumption. However, many studies on IESs have only focused on typical cases or engineering technologies. In this study, we adopted a qualitative analysis research method to qualitatively analyze 21 important policy documents related to IESs in China from 2015 to 2022. The research provides an overview of the policy landscape and the key incentives for IESs implementation in China, identifies the challenges and opportunities for further expansion of IESs beyond industrial parks, then discuss the implications for future research and policy development. The research of the policy documents reveals that IESs as a means to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, provides a deeper understanding of the potential of IESs in promoting energy security and mitigating climate change in China and the world, and strives to bridge the gap between IESs engineering sciences and social sciences.

Policy innovation for sustainable development: the case of the Amazon Fund.

For its "long, winding roads (Thanks, The Beatles!)" and unknown challenges, fostering sustainable and inclusive development requires new public intervention models. For that, the critical assessment of existing innovative policy experiments, their outcomes and determinants, is important not only to strengthen our knowledge base but also to inspire sound development-oriented policies, including green industrial policies. Based on an experimental analytical framework, this article analyses an original policy instrument in Brazil, the Amazon Fund (AF), during the 2008-2021 period. This article demonstrates that the Fund's positive impacts on sustainable development are largely due to its three interconnected innovative dimensions (multistakeholder governance, donor-based pay-for-performance funding, and non-reimbursable financing of projects by the Brazilian Development Bank, BNDES). With hindsight, the article sheds light on the fundamental role of political decisions and the vital role played by different stakeholders in shaping or reversing the works of policy design, making, and implementation.

New perspectives and issues in industrial policy for sustainable development: from developmental and entrepreneurial to environmental state.

The increasingly acute consequences of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the energy crisis have put industrial policy back. The papers in this issue examine how different countries implement industrial policy for sustainable development from a variety of perspectives. A successful transition to sustainable development seems to require not only the mix of carrots and sticks but also a right mix of creation versus destruction, as in the case of the creation of renewable businesses and the destruction of fossil-fuel businesses. Furthermore, because institutional diversity and the risk of capture can result in very distinct economic, social, and environmental effects, consideration of heterogeneity at the country and sector levels and coordination of vested interests are essential ingredients for sustainable industrial policies, as shown by the case of industrial policy in France and the two industry cases in India. By contrast, the Amazon Fund case is indicative of the three success elements: multi-stakeholder governance, pay-for-performance funding, and non-reimbursable project financing. These three elements can be summarized as local ownership and accountable governance, provided with both carrots and sticks. The problematic case of urban development driven by the oil industry in Ghana can be criticized in terms of the lack of local ownership of the oil industry, which has led to all rents being monopolized by the absentee class. By comparison, the mixed success of cases of industrial symbiosis in Uganda is attributed to the lack of effective carrots. In sum, industrial policy for sustainable development requires handling well all three types of failure, namely, market, system, and capability failures, because it necessitates building capabilities of involved actors and coordinating actions of agents, in addition to providing optimal incentives to reflect externalities of global public goods. Overall, the shifting focus of industrial policy is consistent with the shift of the role of the state, from developmental to entrepreneurial, and finally to environmental state.

When is industry 'sustainable'? The economics of institutional variety in a pandemic.

Industrialising economies today are characterised by a multi-level heterogeneity of customs, norms, guidelines, standards, regulations and other laws that provide the broad scaffolding and the technical context for industrial activity. This institutional variety (IV) leads to combinatorial challenges about which institutions are mixed and matched as technologies and sectors evolve. Gaps in evolutionary political economy and evolutionary institutional methods should explain when variety is 'better' for industrial development. Two health industry cases, oxygen production and Ayurveda, have come into the pandemic spotlight under high demand and high uncertainty, by patients, state, firms, experts and other stakeholders. Both cases reflect markedly different types of institutional variety with implications for manufacturing and services. A debate of sustainable industrial policies (SIPs) thus requires attention to institutional variety (IV) and a future agenda on healthcare.

Cell and gene therapy regulatory, pricing, and reimbursement framework: With a focus on South Korea and the EU.

Ever since relevant bioengineering technologies have sufficiently matured to the platformizable commercialization stage, a slew of money has flocked to the cell and gene therapy market over the last few years, resulting in an abundance of clinical studies in the field. Newer modalities have brought up a string of regulatory and legislative tasks, such as developing guidelines and legislative rules to systematically regulate newer pharmaceutical products. Accordingly, another layer of legislation and guidelines tailored for cell and gene therapies has been introduced and is expected to evolve on par with technological progress. Furthermore, authorities have shifted to pricing and reimbursement policies that can share risks for cost and outcome among stakeholders altogether, such as developers and the government, while expanding the accessibility of patients to innovative cell and gene therapies. This review attempts to capture the salient regulatory features of the cell and gene therapy market in the context of South Korea and the European Union and points out where two sovereign entities currently stand on each policy element and how each tackles regulatory challenges. We can observe the converging trend where regulatory, pricing and reimbursement rules of adjoining countries in the supranational union or member countries of a consortium are getting more aligned. Evidently, concerted efforts to share regulatory science knowledge and embrace reference pricing have played their parts. The authors argue that policy priorities should be placed on initiatives to harmonize with other medical authorities to better the rights of patients and clear out the uncertainties of developers, ultimately to share and advance regulatory science and layout forward-looking policies at opportune times.

A US Industrial Policy For Global Health.

Global competition is the wrong strategic lens for an industrial policy involving critical collective health needs. Threats to US health and national security interests in this sector are transnational, and the inputs required for US biopharmaceutical innovation and resilience are globally distributed. To accelerate innovation in the life sciences, the US needs a targeted strategy that invests in domestic self-sufficiency where it is attainable and important and that mobilizes the international collaborations needed to make and deploy medical technologies to promote human health and a more resilient economy worldwide. The US needs an industrial policy for global health.

How Industrial Policy Could Accelerate Innovation In The Life Sciences.

The US is expanding public investment in the technology-based industries, including the life sciences, in a move driven by anger, fear, and hope. Anger at high drug prices is leading to downward pressures and eroding traditional private-sector funding for research and development, fear of China's technological and political ambitions is creating bipartisan support for intervention, and the successful development of COVID-19 vaccines has spurred hope for analogous publicly funded breakthroughs in other therapeutic domains. The instruments of industrial policy used by other nations include grants for scientific research, equity investments in start-ups, tax incentives for corporate research and development, credit guarantees for asset-intensive sectors, governmental procurement, and product pricing. In the face of ever-stronger competition, if the US is to retain its leading position in the life sciences, public policy must consider competition among nations as well as among firms. This article analyzes emerging innovation and industrial policy in the three principal sectors in the life sciences: research universities and laboratories; entrepreneurial startups and "scale-ups," and large pharmaceutical and medical device corporations.

Industrial policy in India since independence.

This paper provides a comprehensive analytical account of the major industrial policies in India since independence. It identifies three phases: 1948-1980, a period characterised by increasing state intervention; 1980-1991: a transitional period of gradual reforms; and 1991-2020: a period of extensive market-oriented reforms. Within each period, it reviews the major policy changes, and discusses possible reasons for their adoption. It also provides a brief account of industrial performance during each phase, and a more detailed review of how those policies have been evaluated by scholars from different perspectives. The discussion is supplemented by simple explanations for some economic theories and empirical methods that have been used in the literature. The review concludes with an eclectic perspective on the record of industrial policy, and some suggestions for the future.

Industrial Investment Funds, Government R&D Subsidies, and Technological Innovation: Evidence From Chinese Companies.

Industrial investment funds are a new financing innovation mode that can build an effective financing channel for enterprises.Based on the panel data of Chinese Listed Companies in 2008-2017, this manuscript constructed a static panel model between industrial investment funds, government R&D subsidies, and technological innovation to empirically analyze the effects of industrial investment fund involvement and government R&D subsidies on companies' technological innovation. The research shows that industrial investment fund involvement can increase the company's R&D investment by providing financial funds for the company, which can effectively solve the company's lack of funds in the process of technological innovation and guarantee the smooth running of the company's innovation activities. Secondly, government R&D subsidies can alleviate the pressure of R&D investment to a certain extent, which is conducive to promote a higher level of technological innovation in the company. Thirdly, for companies with industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies are conducive to promote technological innovation. In contrast, for companies without industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies have no significant impact on technological innovation to a certain extent or even have a "crowding out effect."

The Import Substitution Trap in the Realities of the Automotive Industry.

The article examines mechanisms underlying the formation of the "import substitution trap," which is a stable ineffective institution that serves as a means of protecting national producers from foreign competition. The costs and risks of rooting this institution in the Russian automotive industry are analyzed, the import substitution strategies of the Russian government at the current stage of the industry's development are investigated, the experience of import substitution in the foreign automotive industry is summarized. The conclusion is substantiated that the import substitution policy brings short-term effects but is disadvantageous in the long term. Domestic substitutes can gain a strong market position but their success is fragile and requires continued government support and protectionist patronage. The author shows that the policy of import substitution becomes successful when it relies on competition, when the domestic import substitute, having entered the market and strengthened its position, is gradually deprived of preferential conditions, and the state support of its manufacturer is gradually cut while the market is transferred to a "freewheeling" mode for all players.