Discovery outsourcing increases.

This article reports that companies such as Albany Molecular Research Inc. and Ricerca Biosciences LLC are riding a wave that is not close to cresting, the outsourcing of drug-discovery chemistry. Although pharmaceutical companies have preferred to keep the earliest portions of their pipeline in house, the pursuit of efficiency at all levels has made it impossible to hew to tradition, and they increasingly entrust their earliest and most sensitive chemistry to others. For any company considering the outsourcing of services, one of the most important questions to be answered is the fate of the intellectual property generated by the relationship.