A niche in the marketSmall firms in the pharmaceutical sector are often well placed to satisfy demand for generic drugs, an area not always of interest to large suppliers of research-based products. However, for small firms to stand their ground they have to be efficient. They need to adopt the same competitiveness strategy as the large companies: economies of scale. As these aren't often found at the national level, firms need to look regionally for strategic alliances. ITC is helping small pharmaceutical firms and those in related sectors to find partners, through programmes such as LatinPharma.