As the pharmaceutical industry is cutting back on R&D, more and more big corporations in the field are searching externally for innovative technologies to replenish their pipelines. For biotech start-ups, partnership with these big players not only offers a source of funding, but also helps them tap into a broader knowledge base of therapeutic sector expertise, drug development, regulatory submission, and commercialization.

Experienced, serial biotech entrepreneurs are well-versed in leveraging big pharma to create value for their ventures; however, many first-time entrepreneurs do not understand how to position themselves and communicate effectively with this segment, therefore they miss out on the opportunity to cultivate big pharma relationships. We have seen three common misconceptions about interacting with big pharma that I aim to highlight and disprove...