I think that "big pharma" companies act a lot like banks, and small companies act a lot like venture-capital backed startups. Incidentally, both mechanisms all

I think that "big pharma" companies act a lot like banks, and small companies act a lot like venture-capital backed startups. Incidentally, both mechanisms allow spending a couple of hundred millions (or even billions) of Dollars for a potentially even bigger profit. A third way is government financed research, which may be a competitive option in some cases.