EXPLORING LARGER BIOTECH RESEARCH FIRM STRATEGIES - PROJECTIONS FROM A COMPARISON OF SMALL AND LARGER FIRMS

This is an exploratory study of larger biotech firms using insights fr om a head-to-head comparison of 49 small and 17 large U.S. biotech fir ms using archival data. We found small and large biotech firms to be s ignificantly different from each other on R&D intensity and funding st rategies. The findings are used to project and hypothesize about large r biotech firm growth strategies. Whereas R&D expenses in the small fi rms exceed total income by a wide margin, larger firms are able to cov er most, if not all, of their R&D expenses. Thus, the larger firms are relatively more financially viable. Results also show that the larger firms derive a greater proportion of their revenues from collaborativ e research agreements (CRAs), which has key implications for revenue g rowth in these firms. Based on the findings we project R&D expenses an d collaborative research revenues for biotech firms as they grow in si ze.