Ala, M.U.Sullivan, H.2025-12-172025-12-172013Public Policy in the 'Asian Century' conference, 2013 / Sullivan, H. (ed./s)https://hdl.handle.net/1959.8/154955Since 1982, under a protective regulatory regime, Bangladesh has attained self-sufficiency in off-patent drugs. Of significance, all LDCs including Bangladesh need to implement the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the WTO in 2016. Thisregulatory change warrantsenhanced technology and R&D adoption to improve firms’ competitiveness. Using data obtained from 94 pharmaceutical companies through a questionnaire survey, this study provides an empirical analysis of firm-level TRIPS-related vulnerability facing the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical sector. Ifind that R&D-related and international competitiveness-related vulnerabilities are the most important types of vulnerability. A vulnerability-based classification using cluster analysis reveals that the least vulnerable firms have comparatively higher involvement in independentand collaborative R&D activities.However, at the industry level, the inter-firm and firm-academia/institution collaboration is significantly low. Thestudy underlines the importance of careful policy intervention to providesustained institutional support to create incentives for multidimensional R&D collaboration,including public-private partnerships.enCopyright 2013 The Authorpharmaceutical industrBangladeshpublic policyConference paper