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Inhale Chooses the Service Path

Drug delivery has seen plenty of acquisitions-but they represent two basic philosophical approaches, represented most recently by Johnson & Johnson's purchase of Alza and Inhale's acquisition of two privately-held firms, Bradford and Shearwater. The basic question: can a service model bring significant returns to a large shareholder base or will Alza's evolution into a product company define the way forward for the industry?

Drug delivery has seen plenty of acquisitions—but they represent two basic philosophical approaches, represented most recently by Johnson & Johnson 's purchase of Alza Corp. (the we-need-to-develop-our-own-products point of view) [See Deal] and Inhale Therapeutic System Inc.'s acquisition of two privately-held firms (the we-can-grow-as-a-service-business perspective).

According to the first view, by the mid-1990s, Alza had simply run out of growth opportunities in drug delivery. The...

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