RE: The big question is27 Sep 2024 15:17
'Companies in many industries regularly enter into alliance agreements in order
to enhance their business development activities and pursue mutual benefits and/or
complementary interests. Such alliance agreements may help to mitigate scientific and
business risks associated with the assets and opportunities underlying these activities,
and allow the co-parties to take advantage of their respective capabilities and strengths.
Alliance agreements in the pharmaceutical industry are particularly pervasive. Based
on publicly available information, pharmaceutical companies entered into more than
3,000 alliance agreements involving assets in development (discovery stage through
Phase III clinical trial) between 2011 and 2019.
More than half of these agreements involved early stage assets (i.e., discovery
or preclinical). Senior management representing the co-parties in such alliances
recognize that only a small percentage of the products associated with these early-stage
development alliance agreements will receive regulatory approval and ultimately be
commercialized.
Yet, despite the low probability of regulatory clearance and successful
commercialization, as well as the significant costs incurred to discover, develop and
bring a new drug to market, the potential upside can be substantial, as witnessed by the
number of blockbuster drugs commercialized over the past decade.'