ABSTRACT
The transfer of penicillin technologies to Japan is not a typical case for two reasons. First, although multinational enterprises generally act as the driving forces of technology transfer in high-tech industries, one being pharmaceuticals, in the case of penicillin their role was negligible. Instead it was scientists and government officials who worked in close collaboration to oversee the transfer and diffusion of penicillin technologies to the Japanese industry. The absence of multinational activities in the beginning of the transfer process can be explained by Japan’s isolation during the War and its early aftermath. It was only at the end of the Occupation when industry would begin to take a more central role in the transfer of new technologies for the semi-synthetic derivatives of penicillin.
