The pharma industry is ever-changing and so is facing a number of challenges to its business model. There is a new need to do things differently and to do different things. Here are some things Pfizer is doing:
-New modalities in drug discovery
-Extracting more value from existing assets
-New business model and partnerships
By making their drugs available to people who want to experiment, Pfizer is able to create new uses for their drugs. Pharma lives and breathes in trade secrets and so implementing crowdsourcing can be tricky. Unlike other industries, pharma has yet to figure out how to use crowdsourcing without harming the business.
Pfizer incentivized innovation not only by running a contest and giving a plaque to the contest winner, but they also had a press release with the winner. The cost to Pfizer was practically nothing but the benefit and branding for the winner is high.
What are some other business models in the pharma industry that can foster external innovation?