In this era of pharmaceutical industry consolidation, large pharmaceutical companies, and in particular the newly-merged, taking stock of their increasing bulk, have been heard to say that they will drop products in development that don't have the potential to achieve at least $500 million in revenues. Big pharmas are also looking more critically at their small products already on the market. For these large companies, small products could prove to be a distraction that diverts resources away from potential blockbusters, the kinds of products that the companies will need to grow by 15% a year going forward. In theory, then, as pharmaceutical companies up-average product portfolios in favor of high-revenue producers and prune away redundant or non-strategic products in the aftermath of mergers, many more commercializable products should become available for licensing than ever before. That is the hope, anyway, of a handful of new specialty pharmaceutical companies formed to acquire on-the-market products with the aim of growing their sales through a variety of strategies. These companies avoid product development risk but bear risk of a different sort. To be successful, they must be able to continually acquire products that can grow, and not pay too much for them.

As an industry, women's health is in its infancy. It has yet to develop beyond a collection of niche specialties in reproductive medicine and breast cancer.