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Corgentech/BMS: Finding Specialty Appeal in a Drug/Device Combo

Bristol-Myers Squibb is the latest Big Pharma to step into a specialty market, via a deal to co-promote a drug/device combination being developed by Corgentech. The product is meant to prevent vein graft failure common after bypass graft surgery in the heart and the legs. For the Big Pharma, the appeal of this specialty product is all about higher margins from lower costs, since it will be sold to surgeons in hospitals. The biotech originator wanted a partner to help it get to market faster, manage the product's life cycle, and handle quotidian tasks that add costs but not value to a small firm.

Big Pharmas seem to be waking up to the fact that there are only so many billion-dollar pills to be had. The evidence? Lately, companies that customarily dispatch thousands of sales reps have begun doing deals for specialty products geared towards small prescriber and patient bases. The attraction is uncomplicated: because specialty products can be sold with less fanfare and force than drugs that have to compete for share of voice among general practitioners, they can deliver better profit margins.

Pfizer Inc. with some 14,000 reps--the biggest pharmaceutical marketing force in the world—was one of the first major drugmakers to tune into specialty products. In the summer of 2002,...

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