The outlook for the pharmaceutical industry is promising (Ernst & Young 2010; Price Waterhouse Coopers 2011). The 2009 market of $775 billion US-Dollar is expected to grow to over 1 trillion in 2014 with 6% annual growth. Probably the single most important driver in the pharmaceutical industry is time-to-market (Shah 2004). As a consequence, pharmaceutical companies have focused their skills on drug discovery, development and marketing. This is also reflected in the increasing numbers of scientific publications on management of R&D in the pharmaceutical industry (Piachaud 2002; Hess and Rothaermel 2011; Bianchi et al. 2011a; Bianchi et al. 2011b; Festel 2011; Schuhmacher et al. 2013).

But although the industry is growing, major pharmaceutical companies struggle to capitalize on this growth, because they are challenged by a variety of trends (Shah 2004; Fujiwara 2013). There are shortening patent lives and even active patents provide lower barriers to entry, because there are many product alternatives in nearly all therapeutic areas: either alternative compounds (“me-too drugs”) or off-patent generics. The traditional blockbuster sales model is likely to disappear. There is strong price pressure for health expenditures, as those who pay for health care are exerting strong price pressure and influencing prescribing practices. This means, for example, that in order to be approved, new drugs must address new therapeutic areas or have very significant cost or health ben-