Biopharma R&D Partnerships

The past decade has seen a massive paradigm shift in how new drugs and other therapies are discovered, developed and commercialized. This new distributed model of networked R&D seamlessly blends external partnerships with in-house efforts to generate innovations and create value. Smaller companies and academia have been both beneficiaries and targets of this shift in focus. Partnering with giant pharmaceutical corporations can provide the resources and channels to market that an academic laboratory or a small company simply does not have, but this approach also brings unexpected challenges and new demands. This book is about asymmetric bilateral partnerships in biopharma R&D—David & Goliath arrangements in which one partner is a small organization (David) and the other a large company (Goliath). Going beyond the obvious scientific elements, we explore those factors that most influence the emergence of valuable outputs from such partnerships. In particular we will in many cases adopt the David perspective, focusing on issues and challenges of concern to the smaller partner in such arrangements. If these asymmetric collaborations are to deliver value for both sides, the Davids in these David & Goliath partnerships must come to grips with Goliath’s perspective and develop the practices and mindset to face these challenges head-on. Over the next 12 chapters, we draw upon the partnering experiences and perspectives of more than forty different organizations that the author has either worked closely with or interviewed. Chapter 1 describes how the large large pharmaceutical companies have transformed their R&D model to embrace externalization. Chapter 2 describes the peculiarities that affect the dynamics of biopharma R&D projects. Chapter 3 introduces the important notions…