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news feature
Nature 414, 482-483 (29 November 2001) | doi:10.1038/35107158
Goliath befriends David
Abstract
Increasingly, the drugs giants are outsourcing research in drug discovery to start-up companies. Tom Clarke and Helen Pearson analyse an emerging trend, and ask what both sides expect to gain.
Eighty-five million dollars — that's how much the drugs arm of German chemicals giant Bayer agreed to pay CuraGen of New Haven, Connecticut, in January this year. In return for this upfront purchase of its stock, the biotech firm signed a deal promising to deliver around 80 obesity and diabetes drug 'targets' mined from human genome data over five years.
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