Options: Is the Bio/Pharma Industry Becoming More Risk Averse?

In deal-making, options have long been considered a useful vehicle to carry uncertainty through to a point of resolution, or at least to a position of more understandable risk. Many very early stage players prefer the use of options to allow partners an opportunity to uncover value rather than undersell or worse allow good potential to gather dust for lack of resource. Would-be licensees see options as a lower risk / lower cost way of securing assets, seeing the risk reward balance falling in favour of watchful waiting. The pharmaceutical pipeline is a risky environment. Failure rates remain high despite all the advances in drug design and ever growing safety data.