This trend emerged at BIO-Europe Spring, the bio-pharmaceutical partnering conference held from 8-10 March 2010 in Barcelona.
During a debate at the conference, Geoff Collett, a business development executive at AstraZeneca, quoted his boss, David Brennan, who said:
"Externalisation will be a way of life going forward."
The main reasons for this are that partnering on a drug programme is less risky than relying on in-house projects. Additionally, mid-stage programmes that large pharmaceuticals collaborate on can have a rate of return three times higher than the companies can earn on their own.
AstraZeneca is one of a number of big companies rethinking their approach to drug development.
"We're not married to one particular deal structure," Collett was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, two large bio-pharmaceutical deals were announced at the conference. This suggests that biotech deal making may be on the rise again following a drop in activity during the economic crisis of 2009.
Privately owned Cellzome and Glaxo signed a drug discovery deal worth up to 508 million euros, and Novartis announced an option deal with Transgene worth up to US$955 million for its late-stage cancer immunotherapy.
Source: Fierce Biotech, EBD Group
