Deal Trends, Part I: No Bridge Over the Drug-Discovery Divide
Executive Summary
Platform technology deals were the hot item and the strategic basis for a raft of biotechs. But if their technologies opened some bottlenecks, they've failed to speed up the discovery process significantly. Big Pharma, meanwhile, has cut its technology spending--for a variety of reasons, including the necessity of learning to integrate what they've bought. As a result, platform companies are changing course. Some are becoming product-oriented players; others are repackaging their service offerings to help drug firms finance larger drug discovery programs.