For big biotech, home cooking has its benefits

The drug industry has long since embraced agnosticism, claiming to consider drugs based on their scientific merits and not whether they were invented in-house or licensed from elsewhere. But a look at recent biotech history suggests the companies that prize their own ideas have fared better.

Analysts at Leerink looked at the eight biggest companies in biotech and found that Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had the best rates of pipeline success and the fewest drugs dropping out over five years. That’s interesting because, unlike their more catholic peers, Vertex and Regeneron tend to develop drugs from within their own walls rather than shopping around for external science.

On the other end of the spectrum, Celgene, which had by far the higher percentage of external projects, had the worst conversion rate. Over the last five years, only 6% of Celgene’s pipeline drugs turned into approved projects.