Goodbye, Blue Sky: Shortcutting Discovery

A handful of European biotechnology companies is embracing development shortcuts that were once the exclusive provenance of specialty pharmaceutical firms. Shedding traditional biotech start-up discovery models, these firms aim to identify, reformulate and incrementally improve existing products. The hope is that low risk needn't be low reward; in the process these so-called reprofilers of existing therapies may indeed spark an increase in industry productivity. The trick, observers say, is finding and getting their hands on the right products.