Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on the pharmaceutical industry, nor do I play one on TV. But this does not surprise me:
One often hears the claim that "big pharma" doesn't really do much research and development, and that the creative work is done by small companies that then license their compounds to the big drug companies. That is to a great degree true, but it misses the point: the development of a drug is vastly more complex than the discovery of an active compound. Not only must that drug be tested and trialed at an unbelievable cost that goes beyond the financial and technical means of most small "discovery" companies, but it must then be sold before any patient can take it. There is nothing more complex than the selling of any new medical technology. Why? Because the person who must be persuaded (your physician) is not the person who will benefit (the patient), not the person who will stock it (the pharmacy), and not the person who will pay for (most) of its cost (your insurer or employer). The small discovery companies are as dependent on big pharma as big pharma is on them, and all patients everywhere are dependent on the symbiosis between them.
Criticizing the drug companies for not making their own discoveries is no different from criticizing a pencil company that buys wood for their products from an outside supplier or criticizing an automobile manufacturer that buys some of its parts from outside suppliers. Wells Blue Bunny does not raise its own dairy cows. Breweries generally do not raise their own hops. Likewise, it makes no sense whatsoever for "Big Pharma" to do everything in house.
From what Tigerhawk has written, it appears that the small "discovery companies" have a comparative advantage in the "creative work" while Big Pharma has a comparative advantage in getting the "creative work" through the approval process - running trials and the like. And the cooperation of the discovery companies and Big Pharma results in the availability of many medicines at lower costs than if Big Pharma did everything in house.