Pharma Lemmings

Speaking of mergers and acquisitions, an interesting read on the In Vivo blog about the state of the industry regarding comments by Wall Street analyst Raghuram Selveraju (with additional commentary by Derek Lowe). Big Pharma is facing the patent cliff as their most profitable compounds come out of patent protection. The general story is a shutting down of research at Big Pharma (demonstrated in the thousands of jobs lost in the last few years). With a sense of desperation, it appears Big Pharma intends to fill their pipelines with work from biotech or outsourcing.

The In Vivo blog writes:

That desperation leads to the repetition of familiar mistakes which derive from the predictable thinking of too many business development executives at big pharma, Selveraju opined. First, when looking for licensing opportunities, pharmas very often seek out their comfort zone – a potential product for which they can deploy an existing sales force or promote to doctors they already know and communicate with. Also, to be confident in an experimental drug’s preclinical and clinical data, pharmas often want to go into areas where their competitors also have a compound as well as into validated targets.

The interesting quote to me is the "too many business development executives". I wonder how much of that is true.
The In Vivo blog closes with:

What then is Selveraju’s prescription for better business development practices? It might disappoint those who want pharma to be in the vanguard of innovation. He recommends incremental innovation – using FDA’s 505b2 pathway to develop products with already defined efficacy and safety – as well as biosimilars and re-purposing. Pharma also should focus on niche and specialty indications, and largely eliminate primary care products and the large commercial operations that come with them.

Hmmm, doesn't sound like a plan to cure diseases of the world. I wonder where the innovation will come from then, and who will pay for it?