Who Does What in the Industry

This does not mean that no improvements to pricing policies of the pharmaceutical companies could be made. Indeed, radical beneficial changes could be made without jeopardizing the companies viabilities. 

First of all, in drug discovery there are two main players Big Pharma and Little Biotech.  

The relationship between Big Pharma and Little Biotech is similar to the relationship between the Big Studios and Independent film companies. The Indies often have the ideas, the stories, the production, and so on, but they need the marketing muscle of the Big Studios for effective distribution. Incidentally, the film industry probably envies the shelf life of successful drugs. 

There has been and will continue to be iimovative reconstruction of the pharmaceutical industry with, for example, cross-licensing of products and expertise. Sandoz collaborated with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in oncology. Other companies have a more acquisitive outlook. Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert for its cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, and Pharmacia merged with UpJohn-Searle for its COX-2 inhibitor. Pfizer then acquired Pharmacia-UpJohn-Searle to become the world s largest pharmaceutical company. 

Within a Pharma company, successful drug development needs teamwork. We will deliberate on details later, but we have some preliminary thoughts by way of introduction. 

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