Early bird deal

Amid the clamor about pharmaceutical companies scouring under rocks to find late-stage products, it's also been increasingly clear that they haven't abandoned early stage deals as the Phase III cupboard gets bare.

Of the 52 deals done with pharma or big biotech from the beginning of 2003 through the end of last month, for which terms are available, only a quarter have involved products in Phase II and beyond, while 29 have been at the preclinical or discovery stage, with some of these early stage deals sporting terms rivaling the potential value of some later stage deals (see "Partnering Metrics," A6)...