In 1998, one of Novartis AG 's top late-stage development prospects, the first-in-class Phase III renin inhibitor aliskiren, was an early-stage project that didn't quite make the grade. Novartis didn't want to commit significant resources to develop the anti-hypertensive; renin inhibitors, although scientifically interesting, had failed to live up to their early promise—indeed more than 30 years after the blood pressure regulating renin-angiotensin system (RAS) was first pharmacologically tweaked by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), no renin inhibitors have made it to the market. (See Sidebar: The Renin-Angiotensin System.)
But neither did the Big Pharma, fresh from its formation after the March 1996 merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy [See Deal], want to give up on the project entirely....