Germany's Schwarz Pharma AG has accepted lower-than-average profits over the last few years as it transforms itself from a branded generics player and local co-marketer into a development-based firm. Realizing in the mid-90s that Big Pharma didn't need co-marketing partners any more, and that prices at home were spiraling downwards, Schwarz accepted just 3-4% annual growth for the sake of heavy investments into a development pipeline of its own.
Not that Schwarz is delving too deeply into development—simply to the depths of a risk-comfort zone that the family-controlled firm...
