The clock is ticking

Research and development is key to survive in the fast changing healthcare environment. This is a fact. Big pharma companies are slow at R+D. To address this need, big pharma has been looking for innovative proteins, targets and diagnostics discovered by the small biotech start-ups.

I see the future of big pharma more in marketing rather than in R+D. Big pharma will end up specializing in producing and selling new drugs, and will probably leave more and more R+D to the ones that excel in that. Producing and selling new drugs requires a significant scale, and this is an asset that big pharma companies indeed have.

If they end up living on the buy side of the market for know-how, big pharma companies will need to decide what kinds of R+D should they do in-house, and what kinds should they acquire through M&A, alliances or licenses. As the costs of R+D skyrocket and profits go down very quickly, they will need to act fast. The clock is ticking.