Collaborations
between companies is essential for success in the pharmaceutical,
biotechnology and medical device industries. The efforts
required to bring a therapy from discovery through development,
regulatory approval, manufacturing and marketing are rarely
the result of one company’s efforts. Instead, there
is typically joint activity at one or more stages along
the product development timeline. Collaboration is a broad
concept and can be better understood by examining the specifics
of the types of agreements into which companies usually
enter. These range from traditional product and technology
licenses that allow one company access (whether exclusive
or not) to another’s intellectual property to full-scale
research and development and, eventually, commercialization
agreements between two companies. Although each deal is
unique, collaborations can be categorized into several basic
structures for further analysis. This paper examines the
various types of collaborative efforts commonly undertaken
by companies in the pharma, biotech and medical device sector.
By studying actual legal provisions in contracts governing
real-world examples of each type, the author explores the
basic structure, motivating factors, and key issues raised
by each type of arrangement.
