In their quest to develop new drugs, Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly teaming up with companies in China and IndiaIn the late 1990s, scores of U.S. multinationals were catching on to the cost-cutting benefits of sending work to Asia. Not Big Pharma. The industry was bulging with profits and confidence. Whatever money could be saved by shifting drug development work to India or China would have seemed inconsequential compared with the billions of dollars at stake in a potential new blockbuster.
What a difference a decade can make. Each month, it seems, a big Western pharmaceutical company announces a strategic tie-up with a company or research institute in China or India. In May, for example, Merck (MRK) signed a drug-discovery alliance with New Delhi-based Ranbaxy Laboratories that would pay the Indian company hefty royalties if the program leads to a commercial drug. Merck has struck similar co-discovery deals with India's Advinus and Piramal Life Sciences. Eli Lilly (ELI), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Forest Laboratories (FRX), Wyeth (WYE), and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) also have recruited Indian partners to help develop new treatments for cancer, respiratory diseases, and heart conditions. In most cases, the multinationals are sharing technologies and biological insights that would have remained under lock and key a decade ago.
No new drugs from Asia yet
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