From all accounts, it was quite a beauty pageant: Monsanto Co. division GD Searle & Co. , working hard to succeed Warner-Lambert Co. as the next drug industry resurrection story, has been hosting delegations of licensing hopefuls, first for its phase III Cox-2 inhibitor (an anti-inflammatory without the side-effects of the popular NSAIDs) and now for its two phase III platelet inhibitors being tested for the prevention of heart attacks.
For the Cox-2, Searle chose Pfizer Inc. [See Deal], the industry's most aggressive and probably most successful co-promoter (with...