At Reliant, Mario Tries for Alza II
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Reliant Pharmaceuticals was created as an alternative to Big Pharma in marketing primary care products. But in-licensing market-ready products is expensive and primary-care sales forces expensive to maintain. With new CEO Ernie Mario, the company has now raised a huge amount of new money and will accelerate its efforts to in-license development stage products--a higher risk strategy, but the only way to ultimately create the margins necessary for sustainability.
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Pharmion is an in-licensing based company that has gone where a growing number of biotech companies fear to tread--to Europe. The firm is betting that the marketing infrastructure it has established there, plus regulatory expertise and willingness to take on some development work--even for products with dodgy or downright terrible pasts--will allow it to build a profitable business.