Expert View: Hidden risks in David and Goliath R&D partnerships

In our weekly expert view piece, Robert Thong, author of recently published book “Biopharma R&D Partnerships: From David & Goliath to Networked R&D”, examines the risks and pitfalls of collaborative arrangements between small biotechs and academia and big pharma.

The trend of multinational pharma companies partnering with small biotechs and academia continues unabated. Over 20 deals were announced in the first few weeks of 2016 alone, including AstraZeneca's messenger RNA deal with Moderna Therapeutics, and Sanofi's collaboration with Innate Pharma on bispecific NK cell engagers. An increasing number of these partnerships involve collaborative innovation, both sides work together hand-in-hand, each side contributing their unique skills, as illustrated from the press release of the Sanofi-Innate Pharma deal:

“Sanofi and Innate Pharma will work together on the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific NK cell engagers, using technology from Innate Pharma and Sanofi’s proprietary bispecific antibody format as well as tumor targets.”