Lilly's co-promotion with Boehringer Ingelheim of duloxetine is the first time the American company has signed a major marketing deal for one of its own products. The company notes the collaboration is part of its broad commitment to partnering and that the market is intensely competitive. But the choice of duloxetine--the launch of which may be delayed indefinitely because of manufacturing problems--also represents Lilly's lowest-risk option for subsidizing the launches, and maximizing the returns from, potentially eight new products over the next few years.
Lilly has been saying for the past several years that
partnerships will be crucial to its growth strategy—but in
general "partnership" for Lilly has always meant in-licensing. It's
off-loaded a few products (its propoxyphene (Darvon) product
line, to aaiPharma Inc. 's NeoSan
Pharmaceuticals Inc. unit [See Deal], and most recently, to
Galen
Holdings PLC, fluoxetine hydrochloride (Serafem), its repackaging, for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, of anti-depressant fluoxetine (Prozac) [See Deal].) But Lilly...
