Figure 4

Global networking activity of two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. (Top) Merck & Co. is an American pharmaceutical company. (Bottom) Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company. Both companies are indicated by blue dots at the center of the graphs. Merck & Co. and Novartis make from 2001 to 2006 many deals with many partners (62 deals in 2001 and 2002, 79 in 2003–2004, and 54 in 2005–2006 for Merck and 44 deals in 2001–2002, 68 in 2003–2004, and 54 in 2005–2006 for Novartis). Some deals are with major firms with high and continuous transacting activity (large histograms). Merck & Co. and Novartis interact otherwise essentially with many smaller companies that have very low and temporary transacting activity (very small histograms present most often at only one time period). Colored rectangles indicate the origin of the transacting partners (see insets). Though Merck & Co. makes numerous alliances with US companies and Novartis with Swiss companies, the many different colored rectangles beneath histograms indicate that transactions are global.