Making Licensing Pay

Does in-licensing improve attrition rates? It hasn't reversed the R&D productivity decline-in part because while in-licensed candidates are less risky than internally invented ones, they generate lower average revenues. But companies can do better: we show statistically that they need to place more emphasis on licensing products early. Moreover, to be successful at early-stage licensing, drug firms need focus, not on specific therapeutic areas, but on specific biological mechanisms.