In a word, our strategy is to stay small, but think and act big. The “stay small” part runs counter to the general pathway our industry has been forced to take, a result of global competition and new political, economic and regulatory realities. With the emergence of the mind-bogglingly massive conglomerations, dominating the business on a global scale, it may seem that the only thing left for the rest of us to do is to try to get big, or else position for a sale to one of the biggies. (To be completely honest, we’re not totally against the latter choice for ourselves.)

We like to think that Cobrek is a throwback to a different time, or at least to a different time in our industry: a straightforward small company where everything everybody does each and every day matters to everybody else; where peoples’ opinions are heard, and issues are decided after fair fights; where outcomes, good or bad, are known universally in real time; where a man’s (or woman’s) word is his (or her) bond; where very important and improbable things, usually worth tens of millions or, on occasion, even hundreds of millions of dollars, are accomplished on a routine basis. Cobrek’s method for systematically creating new value—whether or not we may wish to claim it as proprietary—resembles nothing so much as that employed by the great innovators of the past, such as was embodied and made famous by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Group (a/k/a the “Skunk Works”).

Though small in numbers, our people possess the talent and experience worthy of the best and/or biggest companies in the industry. Our employees are empowered, indeed they are required, to think, speak and act honestly and freely (and quickly) to mine specific opportunities, and also to identify and solve (or determine the insolubility) of any problems likely to prevent a product idea from passing the company’s final go/no go screenings. Most importantly, (so far) they do this in the absence of any fear owing to political hierarchy or to personal intimidation by one or more members in the group. That’s it – that’s all there is to it

So, we are believers in teams and teamwork, and in the magic that can be done by well-constructed teams of interested equals. We worry that the feel and productivity we enjoy would likely suffer if we got above a certain size. So, until we find that to be wrong-headed, we shall likely remain small in numbers, bravely dancing in, amongst and between the toes of the elephants who dominate the brave new pharmaceutical world we find ourselves in today.

This does not mean, however, that we must act or feel small. Though we have fewer than 50 fulltime employees, the true impact of our activities can be, and has been, felt in felt in billion-dollar markets around the globe. Focusing on our headcount alone under-weights our impact in the market. The power of our corporate partners to finish the manufacturing of our products, and to handle marketing and sales and logistics is what gives market power to our intellectual property. We just do part of the overall job, but we do that part of the job where, in our opinion, the greatest portion of value is created.

Like most venture-backed companies, we have had our share of challenges and hard knocks on the path to success.  We believe that our survival and growth has occurred despite our early difficulties because of an unswerving commitment to our people, our investors, our processes and core values, and also because of the proven validity of our underlying hypothesis; that is, niche-based strategies are made more, and not less, attractive by massive consolidation in the industry.