"There is value in the market for very well-located retail assets in secondary markets, where there are high barriers to entry and good demographic fundamentals, " he says.

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Unlike America, Europe is a patchwork of smallish markets with varying regulatory and economic barriers to entry, including a requirement to register new drugs in each EU country.

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These include opening the doors of credit for the poor, simplifying and reducing barriers of entry, liberating education markets, expanding access to clean water, and improving the rule of law.

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Watson explains that what was once a niche sector is now seeing barriers to entry fall, but markets have yet to realize that the underlying value of pipeline assets is substantially higher than the market value of those companies.

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In the past, there would have been too many barriers to entry to get into new markets quickly.

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But stories like this are a reminder that many of the technologies that come to us initially as retail opportunities are also at work lowering barriers to entry into an ever-broadening number of markets, and making innovation available to a greater number of people around the world.

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