Big Pharma in Specialist Land: No Proven Advantage Over Small Marketers

Executive Summary

Pfizer's move into the multiple sclerosis market last year, via its agreement to co-promote Serono's version of interferon beta-1a, posed a big challenge for Biogen, the leader in that market. Indeed, the situation is arguably the most visible experiment to date testing whether or not Big Pharmas--which lately have all begun moving into specialist markets--will have significant advantage over the small firms that have until now been the only ones to play there. Biogen's successful response to the challenge suggests that big companies can't dominate small markets just because they're big.