More Than Just Manufacturing
For the longest time, my image of a big pharma company was a vast, sterile factory churning out pills by the billion. A reliable, if slightly dull, business. But that picture is hopelessly out of date. These days, the real value isn’t in the factory, it’s in the laboratory. These firms have morphed into some of the most sophisticated research engines on the planet, pouring billions into cracking the codes of diseases that were once a death sentence.
To me, this changes the investment case entirely. We’re not just buying a manufacturer, we’re backing a team of scientists on the cusp of a breakthrough. Take a company like Bristol-Myers Squibb. They’ve thrown their weight behind oncology and immunology, two of the most complex and lucrative fields in medicine. Their success isn’t just about selling more aspirin, it’s about developing treatments that could redefine how we fight cancer. That’s a different proposition altogether.