Whether you are a biotech or a large pharma, a measure of your success, or even of your value, is your drug development pipeline which, essentially, is a portfolio risk that requires appropriate strategy and management. So what can be regarded as an acceptable risk? Large pharmas prefer #39;blockbuster#39; drugs with peak sales in excess of a billion dollars, while specialty companies and some biotechs are happier with products with smaller peak sales. A strategy of selecting blockbuster drugs places an additional #8216;risk#8217; factor on drug development, but, without a doubt, the rewards are higher. However, the outcome of these risks is clear for all to see, with quite a number of once mighty pharmaceutical companies now languishing as they still wait for that great blockbuster to come along.