2011 was a break-out year for deals between pharmaceutical companies and payers, with three major drug makers – AstraZeneca PLC, Sanofi and Pfizer Inc. – inking broad alliances with the research departments of Anthem Inc., Medco Health Solutions Inc. (now a part of Express Scripts Holding Co.), and Humana Inc.
The alliances signal that even as drug makers reorient their R&D engines to be more flexible and externally focused in the hopes of shedding risk and cost, such moves are...