Certified Licensing Professional - Paul Stewart先生 2014-07-15
校译：识林-椒 2014-07-25
What IS Business Development?
Written by Paul A. Stewart, Certified Licensing Professional • July 15, 2014
Greetings! Although we may have crossed paths if you were in a class where I spoke at Peking University's IPEM program, this is my first post to ShilinX™.
Something I've noticed over the years is the confusion that people have about the term “Business Development.” This is primarily due to the fact that different companies use the term “Business Development” to describe different functions, hence the confusion! Although there may be others, here are the two primary distinctions that you may want to understand so you can clarify them if someone tells you that they do “Business Development” for their company:
1. Many companies (but not usually companies in the pharmaceutical industry) use the term “Business Development” to describe their efforts at increasing sales, opening new countries and business segments, and in general, finding more customers to buy their products. These firms, however, do not include the acquisition of technology in that function.
2. Pharmaceutical firms (and other life sciences companies) generally use the term “Business Development” to instead describe their efforts at acquiring and/or licensing rights to new technologies (novel compounds, enabling technologies and sometimes even existing products and/or even entire companies) that are ultimately marketed by the pharmaceutical company. Most firms also include out-licensing – that is, divesting of their interests in a particular technology or product – as part of their Business Development activities.
My future posts that you read will focus on the second description of Business Development; that is, the licensing or outright acquisition of intellectual property that allows a firm to have a proprietary position with that technology. Just in case someone tells you that they do Business Development for a company, it is often good to ask them precisely what they do before assuming their precise function for their firm.
I hope this information helps you better understand some of the confusion that occurs when people talk about Business Development. My posts are planned for twice per month (and more frequently if there are requests for more frequent posts). If you have any questions that you would like me to answer in an upcoming post, please send it to me at pas@pascoventures.com.
