Corporate venture capital in health care generally tends to be of two types. The first is as a kind of supplement to business development—a way of keeping track of interesting but perhaps fairly long-term pipeline opportunities. The second is as an adjunct to a company's commercial operations—the kinds of investments an R&D-oriented VC wouldn't make.
Pfizer's Middle Way in VC
Pfizer's venture fund, Strategic Investment Group, focuses on commercial "enablers," technologies or services that can give Pfizer new ways of doing business, rather than at new molecules or drug delivery mechanisms. It leaves its drug-focused investments to its business development group.
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