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This particular chapter focuses on managing outside R&D alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures. There are numerous aspects of any outside venture that need to be considered from a business perspective, and these will only be touched upon here. The emphasis will be focused on R&D alliances/joint ventures, what to look for in establishing those relationships, and how to manage them once they are established. In this chapter, I will be using the analogy to marriage. Hopefully, many of you will understand the nuances of the analogy. |
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II.
A General Overview of Alliances/Joint Ventures |
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Before we start, one point needs to be clear from the beginning, and that is that all alliance deals are unique. No two deals are exactly alike, nor should they be. There are commonalities, but each one is specific to the companies and/or product(s) in question. However, regardless of the deal pursued, there are several common activities/steps that should be taken when moving toward an alliance or joint venture (see Table 1). |
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Overall, each alliance or joint venture is a unique entity with its own approach toward fulfilling both partners' specific needs. However, R&D alliances/joint ventures can be generally classified into several categories, such as |
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A. Enabling Technologies: In these alliances, one partner is looking for a technology or expertise to complement its own internal efforts. The other partner supplies that tool. Examples of enabling technologies sought are |
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high-throughput pharmacological screening |
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genetic positional cloning |
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gene biochemical pathway elucidation/expression. |
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B. Codevelopment: In these situations, one partner brings a new potential product into the alliance/joint venture and both partners provide the development resources (money, expertise, people, operational resources, etc.) to bring the product to the market. |
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C. Opportunistic Synergies: Unlike the examples noted above, in these cases, there is a concerted effort on the part of a single company to surround itself with numerous companies with varying and potentially complementary |
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