Inter-firm partnerships – strategic alliances in the pharmaceutical industry
研究了制药行业初创公司与大公司之间战略联盟的三种合同类型（里程碑付款、版税付款和收购合同），分析了每种合同的最优决策及其对不同规模企业的好处。
In recent years, strategic alliances have become key to success in sectors such as pharmaceutical and high-tech industry. Strategic partnerships between start-ups and big pharmaceutical companies have become more prevalent and are typically motivated by the benefits that can be obtained from complementary capabilities. These contractual relationships typically use different financial incentives such as royalties, upfront or milestone payments. The best type of contractual conditions for these strategic alliances may not always be clear. We study three different types of contracts, milestone and optional upfront payment, royalty and optional upfront payment, and acquisition contract. We characterise the optimal decisions for each contract option and provide insights into the benefits each contract type offers for start-ups and big pharmaceutical companies.