Some analysts are skeptical. By its nature it's not tangible. There's just a lot of wasted energy in the matching process, just finding out who's got what, who's looking for what. For larger companies, exchanges are a way to reduce waste in their licensing businesses. About 10 of those could conceivably become something useful, like a drug, Mr. DuJardin says, and the costs of those Bayer decides not to develop show up in high drug prices.
Experts say consolidation is inevitable.
But if even a few swapping sites survive the B2B backlash, the payoff could be big. I can't help but think, given the age of knowledge that we're in, that any way you can get knowledge from one place to another more efficiently is going to mean ultimately to the consumer reduced price or earlier availability. The Globe and Mail . Republished with permission. All Rights Reserved.