CHANGING MODELS OF PHARMACEUTICAL DEVELOPMENT
In the period 1950 – 2000, the development model for manypharmaceutical products involved major companies employinglarge teams of their own research scientists to discover anddevelop new products in house. These products were then typically manufactured in the developer’s own facilities. This model hasbecome increasingly challenged by a need to develop more specifi c therapies, with much smaller target patient populations than the historical blockbuster drugs. The costs of the testing necessary toget a drug to marketable status, then registering and supportingthe product in multiple markets are, however, relatively insensitive to the sales revenue of the marketed product. Also, in recent years, signifi cant numbers of these developments- especially in the area of biologically derived active therapeutic entities – have come fromsmaller companies. The business model of some companies is to specialise in development of a viable set of IP rights which they thensell completely for full commercial development. Where smaller companies lack the fi nancial, regulatory and marketing resources, or sometimes ...