We examine average licensing payments by Big Pharma, mid-sized European, and Japanese pharmaceutical companies.

Criticized for not properly managing growth, Medeva's managers contend they're building a sustainable business. They used profits from methylphenidate, an off-patent treatment for attention deficit disorder, to finance a long list of acquisitions, many of which didn't work out. When methylphenidate sales crashed with the entrance of generic competition, so did Medeva's credibility with investors. They're hoping their self-sustaining European and American infrastructure will help them attract the higher-risk, higher profit products they shunned in their original strategy but now need in order to dig themselves out of their profit hole.