There’s a gap in your technology, so you do what comes naturally: you build.
Need new assay chemistry? Build it. A better detection algorithm? Hire and build. You spend eighteen months and most of a funding round before you even know whether the approach works.
But the IP may already exist.
University tech transfer offices are sitting on innovations developed with public funding, actively looking for commercial partners. Another company may have already solved the problem, and they may share it for the right price.
In-licensing is faster than building. Cheaper than acquiring. It also preserves what internal development destroys: optionality.
When you build from scratch, you risk locking into your solution. You invest your time and your money. By the time you realise that this solution isn’t working you can’t get either of these back.
When you license, you can test an approach without locking in. If it works, you pay the license fees. If it doesn’t, you walk away, without having burned your precious resources on a dead end.
Before you build, look around. Someone may have already solved your problem. Maybe you can take a short cut to fill the gaps you need to fill.
