Scripps' partnering rethink

Following a long run of funding a substantial portion of its research through institute-wide deals with pharmas, The Scripps Research Institute is now shifting to more focused collaborations with midsize biotechs. Scripps believes biotechs are a better fit for the institute's platform technologies than pharmas, where platforms can get lost in the companies' disease-oriented franchise structure.

Over the last two decades, Scripps has had a sequential series of campus-wide partnerships with pharmas including Eli Lilly and Co., Johnson & Johnson, Novartis AG and, most recently, Pfizer Inc...