It is surprisingly difficult for most companies to list what “new” technology they need. Pharmaceutical companies especially struggle with this item. Can they categorically state a specific item is not of interest to them if the company advertising company tells them this is “new” technology ? Or how does a small company approaching a big giant company tell them about new technology? How does the small company know what item is of interest to the large company. Look at the partnering sites for a few companies which lists their areas of interest. The items are so general and so generic that sometimes you can copy and paste items from one company to another. For examle:
BMS:
http://www.bms.com/partnering/interest/Pages/default.aspx
Oddest item: Novel chemistry
Pfizer
http://www.pfizer.com/partnering/areas_of_interest/innovation.jsp
Oddest item: Analytics – enables services
If a small company was to approach a large company to partner in technology, isn’t it very likely that their message is lost in the new chemical entities that the pharmaceutical company is trying to look for? How does a pharmaceutical company find innovative technology for drug discovery that they can actually use?