Novartis' Partnership Ambitions

Novartis' rather public search for a co-promotion partner for tegaserod (Zelmac) has ended up garnering the Swiss firm a bigger partner than it might have expected-and a partner that badly needed a drug to sell--Bristol-Myers. But Novartis is doing more with this co-promotion than simply finding a co-promtoion partner and some quids--it's advertising its willingness to go outside of the company's walls for the firepower it needs and its belief in the necessity of more global partnerships--or perhaps one really big one.