Lilly developing biotech drugs the old-fashioned way

Pharma's biotech strategy is pretty clear: Buy companies or license in drugs and technology to get a leg up in the expanding market. But The Wall Street Journal notes that Eli Lilly has taken its own unusual approach--developing new biotech therapies from scratch. That's a slow approach, and one that is likely to take years to prove, or disprove, its utility. Half of Lilly's drugs entering the pipeline this year are biotech drugs, up from 10 percent in 2001. And by 2011, Lilly says it will introduce one new biotech drug each year.

- read The Wall Street Journal's article on Lilly (sub. req.)

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