Que vaut une molécule ?
Following the advent of biotechnology and the amplifying calls for the transfer of knowledge from science to industry, the development of new drugs increasingly resorts to partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and start-ups stemming from public research. Such partnerships are market relation...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Société d'Anthropologie des Connaissances
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/rac/3381 |
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| Summary: | Following the advent of biotechnology and the amplifying calls for the transfer of knowledge from science to industry, the development of new drugs increasingly resorts to partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and start-ups stemming from public research. Such partnerships are market relations in which R&D (research & development) projects are bought and sold. How is the value of R&D projects constituted and measured in view of their exchange? The article addresses this question by focusing on the most widespread tool for the valuation of drug development projects: the discounted cash flow (DCF) formula. Widely used, the formula is also vividly criticized for the instability of the results that it produces and the too low values that it grants to exploratory projects. The study of the valuation practices that the formula instruments shows that the capacity of the formula to calculate hinges upon a metrological infrastructure and that, paradoxically, it is precisely because the formula produces “wrong” results that it “works”. |
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| ISSN: | 1760-5393 |