It's not here yet, but it could just be a matter of time. Consider the following scenario. It may not even be its own idea - the target may be discussed in the open literature, brought to it by an academic group, or licensed in from a biotech boutique. A specialist firm could then make the drug candidates, perhaps through combinatorial synthesis, followed by high throughput screening to pick out the best bets. Assuming that Acme is onto a winner, the next stages involving pharmacology, dosage forms, scale-up, pilot manufacture and larger scale clinical trials can all be contracted out.
Specialists can do the onerous work of getting regulatory permissions.
Even before regulatory approval is achieved and a decision is made to go ahead with a launch, Acme will have had to source its raw materials and identify a licensed GMP manufacturing facility. A long-term production arrangement will probably be best, so that the contractor is committed to helping develop the process route and making the drug a success. Packaging and distribution services will be outsourced. In the final analysis, it is probably not worth hiring and training a sales force for one drug - better to enter into marketing agreements with other pharmaceutical companies with good sales networks in the territories you have targeted. After all, that's how Japanese drug companies get into the European market and how most of the biotech babes have started out.