Abstract
Breakthrough innovations are crucial drivers of economic progress, often depending on external knowledge sources to complement internal knowledge. Co-patenting is one way to achieve this by implementing open innovation within research and development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of co-patenting on breakthrough innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. A research question is tested empirically using an archival dataset comprising 866 patents in pharma. The findings show that co-patenting has a significant positive impact on breakthrough innovations. Short of previous investigation, this paper provides new empirical insights on the open innovation and co-patenting levels, leading to both academic and practical implications on the field.