Patent Acquisitions in the Healthcare Industry: An Analysis of Learning Mechanisms.

The healthcare industry at large is used as a case study to suggest a methodological technique for evaluating patent citation networks to analyze cross-country creativity/knowledge flows. It intends to provide insight on the following research issues: (a) how to examine cross-national creative/learning flows; and (b) have nations with present patent owners profited from patent acquisitions? The research field at hand is currently under-explored, justifying the motivation for conducting this investigation, even though it has economic relevance in innovation patterns worldwide. The analysis of over 14,023 firms has shown that: (a) owners have acquired patents across borders, and (b) acquired patents (granted between 2013 and 2017) are cited by later patents (2018-2022). The methodology and findings are transferable to other industries. They can be used by managers and policymakers to (a) assist businesses in predicting innovation trajectories and (b) assist governments in designing and putting into action more effective policies that foster patented innovations in sectors that are deemed to be relevant to the national interest, thanks to the adoption of a new, complementary theoretical viewpoint that merges the micro- and macro-economic perspectives of citation flows.

Short-term rental market crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Stakeholders' perspectives.

Contingency plans and crisis management strategies have been implemented by the short-term rental industry to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the strategies adopted by three key groups of stakeholders: short-term rental platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Booking.com), service providers (represented by property management companies and short-term rental associations) and policymakers/tourism experts. The professional service providers, in particular, constitute a significant share of the short-term rental industry, but have not received much scholarly attention. In this respect, our study fills this gap by bringing attention to unexplored segments of the short-term rental industry. By examining and comparing the responses from these key groups, the paper contributes to the ongoing research about the workings of the short-term rental industry and its responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

Treatment of acute exacerbation of severe-to-very severe COPD with azithromycin in patients vaccinated against Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Sixty-five consecutive eligible adult patients, who were treated as outpatients for stable severe-to-very severe COPD, were enrolled in the study. All of them received 23-valent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine intramuscularly. Patients were seen monthly, as well as whenever they had symptoms suggestive of an exacerbation, at our outpatient clinic. Eighteen out of 65 patients suffered from acute exacerbation (AECOPD). Three of these patients presented two episodes of AECOPD. Patients with an acute exacerbation of COPD received azithromycin 500 mg/day once daily for 3 days and a short course of oral prednisolone 25 mg/die. In 16 cases, a single species was isolated, while in the remaining 5 cases at least two species were recovered. Clinical cure or improvement at the end of therapy (3-5 days post-therapy) was reported in 17 episodes of AECOPD with no relapse at the late post-therapy (10-14 days after the completion of treatment). Bacteriologic eradication or presumptive eradication rates at the end of therapy were 86% (24 out of 28 isolates). Azithromycin eradicated all isolates of Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, H. parainfluenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Klebsiella spp. isolated at baseline. Eradication of Sta aureus occurred in 1 of 3 isolates whereas azithromycin was unable to eradicate Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. Our data seem to indicate that pneumococcal vaccination reduces the possibility that an AECOPD is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. This finding allows the use of antibiotics such as azithromycin, which, otherwise, should be avoided because of resistances.

Bronchodilator response to formoterol after regular tiotropium or to tiotropium after regular formoterol in COPD patients.

We conducted a randomized, crossover trial with tiotropium 18 microg once daily (group A), and formoterol 12 microg twice daily (group B) over a 5-day period for each drug, with a 10-day washout, in 20 COPD patients. At the end of each period, patients inhaled both drugs separated by 180 min in alternate sequence (group A: tiotropium 18 microg+formoterol 12 microg; group B: formoterol 12 microg+tiotropium 18 microg). FEV1 and FVC were measured at baseline and after 30, 60, 120, 180, 210, 240, 300 and 360 min. FEV1 and FVC further improved after crossover with both sequences. The mean maximal change in FEV1 over baseline was 0.226 L (0.154-0.298) after tiotropium+formoterol and 0.228 L (0.165-0.291) after formoterol+tiotropium; the mean maximal change in FEV1 over pre-inhalation the second drug value was 0.081 L (0.029-0.133) after tiotropium+formoterol and 0.054 L (0.016-0.092) after formoterol+tiotropium. The mean maximal change in FVC over baseline was 0.519 L (0.361-0.676) after tiotropium+formoterol and 0.495 L (0.307-0.683) after formoterol+tiotropium; the mean maximal change in FVC over pre-inhalation of the second drug value was 0.159 L (0.048-0.270) after tiotropium+formoterol and 0.175 L (0.083-0.266) after formoterol+tiotropium. The FEV1 AUCs(0-360 min) were 62.70 (45.67-79.74) after tiotropium+formoterol and 69.20 (50.84-87.57) after formoterol+tiotropium, the FEV1 AUCs(0-180 min) were 24.70 (18.19-31.21) after tiotropium+formoterol and 29.74 (21.02-38.46) after formoterol+tiotropium, whereas the FEV1 AUCs(180-360 min) were 15.70 (10.88-20.52) after tiotropium+formoterol and 11.71 (7.21-16.21) after formoterol+tiotropium. Differences between the two treatments were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The addition of second different long-acting bronchodilator to a regularly administered long-acting bronchodilator seems to be to patient's advantage.