It has become common wisdom that, in the face of patent expirations and sparse pipelines at major pharma companies, biotechs are in a strong position to negotiate advantageous deal terms – and not just companies with late-stage assets, but a whole spectrum of the industry. Sounds like good times ahead. But as 2011 gets under way, it's not so clear that the industry has the upper hand in its dealings with big pharma, nor that these large companies are necessarily looking first to the biotech industry to solve their problems.